The Localisation of Japanese Video Games : Striking the Right Balance
Mangiron i Hevia, Carme (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

Imprint:	John Benjamins, 2012
Abstract:	Over the course of the last three decades the entertainment software industry has become a multibillion dollar industry and a worldwide phenomenon. The United States and Japan have traditionally been the main players in this industry, which owes part of its global success to internationalisation and the associated localisation processes. Due to the cultural distance between Japan and Western countries, Japanese games often undergo extensive cultural adaptation in order to market them successfully in those territories. This paper analyses the localisation of Japanese console games. After presenting a brief overview of the history of the localisation of Japanese games it describes the main internationalisation strategies adopted by Japanese developers and publishers. It also explores the main localisation strategies applied to Japanese games, i. e. domesticating or exoticising, exploring the cultural adaptation processes to which some Japanese games have been subject, and examines how critics and players reacted to the localised versions. Finally, it concludes with a reflection on the extent to which Japanese games should be culturally adapted for their international release in order to strike the right balance between domesticating and exoticising strategies taking into account different factors, such as the genre of the game, the gaming preferences of the target players, and the intended audience.
Grants:	Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación FFI2009-08027 Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca 2009-SGR-700
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Cultural adaptation ; Localization strategies ; Video games
Published in:	The Journal of Internationalization and Localization, Vol. 2 Núm. 1 (2012) , p. 1-20, ISSN 2032-6912

DOI: 10.1075/jial.2.01man

20 p, 790.9 KB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Arts and Humanities > TransMedia Catalonia
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles