The document summarizes discussions from the Localization Summit 2010 conference. It provides an overview of several talks, including localizing large role-playing games for BioWare titles like Mass Effect, standardizing localization processes at Sony Online Entertainment, and a case study of localizing the Buzz! quiz game franchise across 18 languages and locales. It also discusses strategies for Japanese game developers to improve their English skills by playing Western story-driven games in English, noting how region restrictions have lessened with formats like Blu-ray discs and the international versions of some games.

1. Localization Summit now!
Kenji Ono kono3478@gmail.com
Note:title has a little relationship with content

2. Let me introduce…
 Kenji Ono
 Videogame journalist
 SIG-Glocalization member
 Please search “SIG-GLOC”
(sorry, only Japanese)
 Twitter : kono3478
 The business card with
presentment are good at
GDC!

3. Well,

4. GDC10 was
held in San
Francisco.

5. I tripped to Los Angels, because of my airtiket
reservation mistake…

6. It was hard trip, but
I had a good exeperience

7. There were great vintage SLOT MACHINEs!

8. There was a Airport museum in the passage
in San Francisco domestic terminal,
and we could see many vintage Slot Machines there!

15. I thought that I should change my speech theme from
Localization summit to
But…

16. I feel boredom…
When will you start?
I am sorry,this is my st

17. Localization summit 2010
 It started in last year and this is 2nd time.
 Advisors: Tom Edwards(Englobe) & Miguel Á. Bernal-
Merino(Roehampton University)
 The room became small(120 person) and there were
some guys who couldn’t be attend.
 Publishers:1/4,Developers:1/4,Translator:1/2
 We discussed about many topics and one of them was
“Localization award”.

19. Overview of Summit(1)
 Localizing large RPGs (Bioware)
 Standardizing the Localization Process(SOE)
 On the fly Player Messaging (EA & Lingoona)
 New Distribution, New Marketing, new Localization
(THQ)･･･Keynote
 Localizing for the Spanish Speaking Community (Pink
Noise & Wordlab)

20. Overview of Summit(2)
 Make your games appealing to the Asian Market(SCEK,
EAK)
 Advanced Localization Methods for Japanese Games
(SCE, Capcom, Game Arts)
 A case study: Buzz Localization (SCE)
 Game Market Graphs

21. Localizing large RPGs
 Theme:Large RPS’s localization process in BioWare
Mass Effect 300000 wards– vo 25,000 lines
Mass Effect2 450000 wards – vo 30,000 lines
 Ready for Localization kit in parallel with original
(English)version
 Voice guide（for voice recording）
 ＩＰ（check of trademark in each areas）
 Ｑ＆Ａ（ efficiency improvement of translation work ）
 Character bible（overview of characters）

24. BioWare publisher translator

26. I guess that this tool
was customized for
translation based on
Mass Effect’s character
conversation tools…

27. A case study: BUZZ! Localization
 BUZZ! Casual quiz game of SCEE
 Trivia quiz with a direction of TV quiz show
 With special controler, 4 playres
 8 million copies for PS2,PS3 and PSP except Japan

32. 18 local areas and languages
 The number of quizzes：6000 quizzes
 International English, French, Italian, German, Spanish,
Dutch, Portuguese, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish,
Polish, Russian, Czech, Croatian, Greek, Australian
English, American English
 Each territories have own culture and common sense:
There is no mean for literal translation.
 Global quiz and Local quiz = 50:50

36. Global and Local
 “Is the subject of the question known in all
territories?” and ”Is the difficulty level of the question
consistent in all territories?”
 2 conditions apply→Global quiz
 The other quiz →adaption and Local quiz
 Respect of the opinion and judge from local vendors
You should decide Directory Structure, Trackers and
Naming Coventions before translation (6000 questions X
18 locales)

46. supplement：how to learn English
for Japanese developers
 I have met many western game developers and
translators who came to be able to speak Japanese by
playing Japanese games before.
（not Asian countries, but north America and Europe）
 There are few Japanese game developers who came to
be able to speak English by playing Western games.
Why？

47. I retraced the western games I had played in college days…
1: Populous

48. 2:Sim City

49. 3:Flight Sim
There were no story games 

50. Reason:there were no western story games I had
wanted to play strongly at that time…
But, the situation changed!
In very dramatically now･･･

51. ＤＶＤ：different region code

52. Blu-ray Disk：same between Japan and US
And there is no region limit in PS3 format disk.

53. If you change the language option from Japanese to
English in Uncharted 2(Japanese version),

54. You can play English version!

55. Let’s play western
AAA story games in
English
I will recommend you to play “International” version.(ex: Star Ocean 4)

56. See you again at
GDC 2011
kono3478@gmail.com