In a region which has seen such growth in the gaming industry over the last decade, not having a sufficient body of localised content in Arabic is a potential missed opportunity argues Nazih Fares, head of communications and localisation at 4 Winds Entertainment, a publisher.
And while there are challenges in introducing Arabic script in what is a predominantly Latin-script dominated industry, Fares told Arabian Business it is worth it given that Arabic is the “fifth most spoken language globally and should become a key factor within international localisation plans for games in the future.”
Fares called the mid-2010s the “golden age” for gaming in the region with “major brands participating in local events, supporting local e-sports initiatives, or localising their games and communication channels for the public in Arabic.”
“Governments across MENA, such as in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, saw and understood this potential and are now allocating their resources to support the industry’s growth,” he added.
Games revenue in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt alone are expected to exceed $3billion in 2025, with over 85 million gamers playing across mobile, PC, and console, according to Niko Partners’ MENA Games Market Report.
“Egypt is the fastest growing market among the three countries, while Saudi Arabia remains the most prominent and second fastest growing market. According to the same report, Egypt has more gamers than UAE and Saudi Arabia combined. However, it is the smallest of the three in terms of revenue. This positions the country as an ideal market to increase the MAU for their free-to-play products such as Fortnite, League of Legends or PUGB Battleground,” said Fares.
“On the other hand, Saudi Arabia has the most revenue, while UAE has the highest spending per user, meaning the focus is on monetising the regional players,” he added./
The need for localisation
Within this context, localisation content “is a significant need in the region because of its core impact on the players in understanding the true essence of the game in their native tongue,” said Fares.
“While the Western world built an infrastructure to appeal to most languages used in Europe like German, French or Spanish, Arabic wasn’t considered due to numerous challenges with the way game engines handle the language and no real “international” guidelines and best practices of implementation,” he continued.
But developing gaming content in Arabic is not without its challenges, the main one of which is “finding the right talent to execute the localisation of the game,” said Fares.
“The majority of development teams are not used to working with a language that is very different from Latin-based ones, and this can cause many issues if a game is being produced from the ground up without that support,” he added.
“We also have the importance of culturally adapting even the text and dialogues in-game. Things like English slang, idioms, and even grunt sounds cannot just be translated as-is and require a homogenous creative approach. It requires the right balance between finding something that works for the players yet doesn’t destroy the essence of the story developers are trying to share to their global audience,” he continued.
Fares listed “voice localisation” as the final challenge explaining that some publishers have been criticised for deviating from the Modern Standard Arabic dialect, which can sound a bit “crude” but is the most understood among the wide variety of Arabic dialects.
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