Video Games Localization into Arabic: Gamers’ Reactions to Localizing PUBG and Free Fire

Abstract

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has an active gaming community, with Arab gamers being reliant on games produced in Europe, America, and Japan due to the lack of significant game production companies in the MENA region. This study explores the gamers’ reactions to the localization process of two video games, namely PUBG and Free Fire. For data collection purposes, a five-point Likert scale questionnaire that consisted of 18 items and six constructs, namely need for subtitled games, technical aspects, language issues, language preference, attitudes to game localization, and future actions and recommendations, was designed to elicit the reactions of 112 participants. Upon analyzing the responses, the findings showed that the better the technical aspects and language issues of the games’ performance, the more positive participants’ attitudes to game localization. The study recommends that further research could be conducted on the localization of video games with different themes into Arabic.

Keywords

• localization
• video games
• pubg
• free fire
• audio visual translation (avt)