Economic crisis may lead publishers to overlook localisation

Synthesis has warned that the economic crisis will cause publishers to overlook localisation and the benefit it brings to a game.

Emanuele Scichilone, project manager at the Milan arm of the localisation and translation outfit predicts that economic pressure may force developers and publishers to go for low-cost approaches that will ultimately lead to diminishing returns.

However, Synthesis’ CEO and founder Max Reynaud also believes that opportunities will arise for his outfit and other localisation businesses because of the economic climate.

“The upcoming years won’t be easy for the industry” Reynaud told Develop.

“I’ve been studying how the economic scenario has been unfolding over the last five years, and I’m getting more and more convinced that the current crisis will extend and will not hit just the ‘weaker’ countries like Greece, Spain or Italy but also central Europe and US in a way that few could expect at the moment, so clients and publishers will be looking to counter this by expanding into new territories and markets.”

Expanding into these new territories, such as Brazil, the Middle East and Central Asia is where Synthesis and other localisation outfits will play a vital part.

Poor localisation and translation can kill a game upon release in a country.

Scichilone and Reynaud recently discussed how they localised Arkane Studios’ Dishonored for multiple languages simultaneously.