In the games industry today, most games target a national audience, but localise their games, depending on what country it is being sold in. Due to the popularity of gaming increasing throughout the world, localisation has become much more important in the production of games and more sales can now be made from a product that has been altered to suit a particular country. This means that people from certain countries who may be offended by the games original content can now play the games without concern.
Nationally, there are some issues with gaming products, which means that they have to be changed, in order for them to sell in other countries. One of the most well known examples of this is due to the games console ban in China, that has been in place since the year 2000. The Chinese government deemed games consoles bad for the young people of China (claiming they 'corrupted the minds of the teenage generation,') meaning that no games consoles were sold. However, recently, the 'China Quality Certification Centre' website showed two models of the PlayStation 3, labelled 'computer entertainment system' received approval from the government this July. This shows how the console itself had to be modified in production to be sold in another country.
However, many games do not have to be completely changed to be sold, but just 'localised' to suit certain nationalities' cultures. Localisation is the alteration of games, to suit countries' linguistic, cultural, hardware/software, legal differences, their consoles' graphic capability and even musical differences. Even though this allows more games to be sold world wide, there are some issues surrounding this. An example of this can be seen with the release of the localised versions of 'Final Fantasy VII'. After its Japanese release in 1997, it took 7 months for it to be released in the US, and another 2 months for it to be released in the UK and Europe. This was due to the fact that the game had to be fully translated and loacalised before it could be sold in other countries.
As I mentioned before, not just languages need to be changed for games to be sold internationally, some game content is considered unfit for certain national audiences. For example, in Germany, no swastika references are allowed at all in games, (obviously due to the events of ww2), which meant that the zombies in 'Call of Duty - Black Ops', which displayed swastikas had to be removed from the game in the German localised versions. Also, in the SNES game 'Wolfenstein 3D', the character Hitler was changed to 'the Staatmeister', and the dogs replaced with giant rats. An example of a cultural change that had to be made can be seen in the Chinese version of 'Wizard 101', in which all skeletal characters in the game had to be removed as it is inappropriate to depict bones in Chinese culture.
In conclusion, due to the fact that most countries now have access to the internet, (where people are exposed to the tabooed subjects that had been removed from games anyway) I believe that the localisation of games according to culture etc, is not as important as it used to be in most countries. Obviously, in places like China, where censorship is still in place, the localisation would still be a major thing to consider, but maybe in many European countries, it's not as bad. However, liguistic localising is still very important, even today, as people still need to be able to understand the game to play it!
However, many games do not have to be completely changed to be sold, but just 'localised' to suit certain nationalities' cultures. Localisation is the alteration of games, to suit countries' linguistic, cultural, hardware/software, legal differences, their consoles' graphic capability and even musical differences. Even though this allows more games to be sold world wide, there are some issues surrounding this. An example of this can be seen with the release of the localised versions of 'Final Fantasy VII'. After its Japanese release in 1997, it took 7 months for it to be released in the US, and another 2 months for it to be released in the UK and Europe. This was due to the fact that the game had to be fully translated and loacalised before it could be sold in other countries.
As I mentioned before, not just languages need to be changed for games to be sold internationally, some game content is considered unfit for certain national audiences. For example, in Germany, no swastika references are allowed at all in games, (obviously due to the events of ww2), which meant that the zombies in 'Call of Duty - Black Ops', which displayed swastikas had to be removed from the game in the German localised versions. Also, in the SNES game 'Wolfenstein 3D', the character Hitler was changed to 'the Staatmeister', and the dogs replaced with giant rats. An example of a cultural change that had to be made can be seen in the Chinese version of 'Wizard 101', in which all skeletal characters in the game had to be removed as it is inappropriate to depict bones in Chinese culture.
In conclusion, due to the fact that most countries now have access to the internet, (where people are exposed to the tabooed subjects that had been removed from games anyway) I believe that the localisation of games according to culture etc, is not as important as it used to be in most countries. Obviously, in places like China, where censorship is still in place, the localisation would still be a major thing to consider, but maybe in many European countries, it's not as bad. However, liguistic localising is still very important, even today, as people still need to be able to understand the game to play it!
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