The increasing success of the game industry is reflected in the high demand for localizers, who until now mainly had to learn game localization skills on the job in an ad hoc manner, due to the lack of formal training available (Bernal-Merino 2008c). Despite the rapid expansion of the game localization industry and the existence of numerous translator training programmes offered by universities around the world, most undergraduate programmes do not include game localization in their curriculum as a fully-fledged subject. At postgraduate level, however, there are a number of institutions in Europe offering game localization courses. It should also be noted that, due to the relative youth of the industry and of localization as a professional practice, there is some terminological variation relating to the job titles game translators are given by the industry, similar to the terminological variation. In particular, this relates to the blurred distinction between translation and localization. For example, the terms "game localizer", "game translator", "localization translator", and "localization specialist" are all commonly used in the industry and this is reflected in the terminology used in job ads for this field. We therefore use the terms"localizer" and "translator" interchangeably.
There are currently no professional associations of game localizers, but the International Game Developers Association (IGDA) has a Localization Special Interest Group (SIG) to bring together the game localization community. Their goal is:
to provide a focal point and nexus for the growing number of game localization professionals in order to build community, .. draw together best practices and processes, as well as emphasize the requisite international dimension of game content development towards the goal of improving global game development processes and local end user experiences. (IGDA Localization SIG n.d.)
Joining the Game Localization SIG is a good way of meeting other professionals and people working in the game industry, as well as of keeping up to date with the latest developments in the field. In relation to the form of employment, most game localizers are freelancers working for localization agencies or directly for their client. Some of the major developers and publishers such as Blizzard, Square Enix and Nintendo, have a localization department with some permanent staff, and also a portfolio of freelancers who work on site when there is more than one project running at the same time. They may also outsource some small-scale projects to game localization vendors. In terms of working conditions, salaries for freelancers on a contract tend to be higher, but in-house employees have the security of a permanent job as well as various benefits. Freelancers working directly for major developers and publishers who localize their products using the in-house model usually have to work on-site for the duration of the project, whichcould be anything from a month to a year. From our experience in the industry, many of the freelance localizers working on-site tend to be relatively young early to mid-career translators. Other developers, like Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE), have a localization department which oversees and coordinates localization into different languages, but the actual translation of the game assets is outsourced to seven or eight specialized vendors.
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