Occasionally, games set in imaginary scenarios also present implicit cultural references, either in the script or in the visuals. They may also allude to customs and traditions of the original culture that are not common in the target culture. If these references do not pose any serious issue in terms of game reception and ratings, they can be maintained, such as bathing in a public bath in Final Fantasy VII (1997), based on the common Japanese practice. However, if the reference interferes with the understanding or the enjoyment of the game, the more common strategy will be to omit it completely from the target version. In order to achieve understanding by the target receiver, what seems an extreme yet common translation strategy often used in games is omission or what Chesterman (1997, 107) refers to broadly as "information change". Although this strategy may sound like "an easy way out", it is a legitimate procedure used by professional translators under certain justifiable circumstances (Baker 2011, 42-43). The fact that games are interactive audiovisual products means that if a cultural allusion is obscure it could not only puzzle the user but could actively hinder the gameplay. The fast pace of most games and their interactive nature also call for brevity and user-friendliness, so long explanations about unknown source-culture elements are generally not appropriate. If there are opaque or offensive cultural references in a game, they are likely to have a negative impact on the player's engagement and the primary entertainment function of video games may fail. Cultural allusions to religion, customs and habits, and historical and political events are therefore likely to require a degree of manipulation. The decision to remove cultural references is also often linked to ratings and censorship issues (see Chapter 5). For example, in the Chinese version of Conflict Zone (2001) a cut-scene that depicted tanks in Tiananmen Square was removed from the game. If the cinematic sequence had not been removed, the game would probably have been banned by the Chinese authorities, thus losing an important segment of the global market.

Other than the strategies mentioned above, which are commonly used to deal with culture-specific phenomena in games, there are further radical transformations commonly undertaken during localization (O'Hagan 2012a). Game localizers sometimes use the strategy of adding new references to the TT, with the aim of giving the localized version a more local flavour. In order to bring the game closer to target players and compensate for the loss of the original cultural allusions, game localizers may sometimes opt to rewrite and recreate to differing degrees, based on the original. Game localizers tend to have greater freedom in applying the strategy of cultural filtering and information change, than most other translators. Extreme cases of such operations are akin to re-makes, as mentioned earlier. Chandler (2008a, 34-35) cites the localization of Seaman (1999), a Japanese game about a pet fish that asks the player questions and tailors the conversation according to the player's preferences. The original content was heavily addressed to a Japanese audience and contained numerous cultural references, so the localization team had to significantly adapt all the Japanese cultural content for the first half of the game. Then the company decided to work with writers for the second half, and create original content aimed at a US audience. Similarly, the Nintendo simulation game Animal Crossing (2001) was full of references specific to Japanese culture, as it was originally intended only for the Japanese market. When the game was subsequently localized into English for the North American market, all the cultural elements were fully adapted and rewritten in order to make them fit North American culture. Even the visuals were redesigned in order to depict the American way of life (Nutt 2008). The localized version of this game was so successful that it was subsequently retranslated into Japanese and marketed in Japan with the American content as Animal Crossing E-Plus (2003), which also became a hit title in Japan (ibid.). Such an extreme case of adaptation is considered as worthy of being treated as a new product in some cases as illustrated by certain Japanese publishers that systematically capitalize on them, as mentioned in our case study on Square Enix (see 4.3). The quiz game Buzz! (2005-) in turn provides an apt example in which some of the content of the game needed to be rewritten to be relevant to the target territory. It therefore involved a substantial amount of recreation, as detailed by Crosignani and Ravetto (2011), who attribute the international success of the series to the application of "transcreation". There are currently no particular agreed-upon labels given to these forms of radical manipulation as types of translation strategy. 

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