What's gaming culture like in non English countries? What's popular? Is there any genres or games more popular than in the Anglo sphere?
- Thread starter Sheentak
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I'm glad! I wish we got as much Xbox support, but Spain (and most of Europe) is secondary at best for MS.
In fact, for a while Xbox decided, at the start of the gen, to stop dubbing games and started bringing just the Mexican Spanish translations, and they got mauled to death by the press and fans here. Luckily they returned back with Gears 4, but they immediately lost whatever little push they had coming from the previous gen.
In Spain we struggle to make a point with other gamers when it comes to play great games appraised by everyone IF it does not have spanish subtitles or voice acting.
The vast majority of games that are underappreciated here are like that mainly because of that reason.
It counts for a lot of factors. Is part culture, part demographic, part publisher's fault. But that has made that games like Disco Elysium or Night in the Woods are completely ignored by the majority of people that would have loved it being localized.
The vast majority of games that are underappreciated here are like that mainly because of that reason.
It counts for a lot of factors. Is part culture, part demographic, part publisher's fault. But that has made that games like Disco Elysium or Night in the Woods are completely ignored by the majority of people that would have loved it being localized.
That's very interesting! I've recently handled text localization for one of my games and I was wondering how important it was for Spanish (/LatAm) and Portuguese (/Bra).
You've talked specifically about dubs but is it as much of a concern when it's only textual?
Theres barely any portugal portuguese localization (as in even subs) still because they are too small of a market.
The brazilian portuguese is hence the bigger market and thats why they get more localizations. I dont know if they get (or choose to) play their games in brazilian portuguse though, you will have to ask someone from portugal about that.
The only thing that works here to get better products cattered to your country is fight with your pocket, and thats is why shouth america is starting to get more.
Also, how different is portuguese from protugal to brazilian portuguese. Because a good castillian spanish localization changes COMPLETELY from a "neutral" (is not) spanish one.
Like probably some people think thiese languages are similar to the differences between british/american/australian english, but i can assure you it goes WAY beyond.
The Spain market is viable and people ask for it, thats why you even see MUCH more localization of videogames in castillian spanish than latin american spanish. Thankfully for them they are getting more and more localized products.
For the Spanish case, there are a lot of terms used on each side that are never used on the other side, or mean something completely different. And it's SUPER JARRING to see some of them.
For example, the verb "coger" means "to grab" on Spain, but "to fuck" on some Latin American countries (the use the verb "agarrar" instead). Like, no one in Spain would say "Agarra ese objeto" to say "Grab that object", no one
To expand on that, PlayStation is popular in here, Xbox might as well not exist (especially when they moved Store back to using dollars and removed buying Gold/GP online, while barely trying to translate their games to Russian, and even then it's subtitles only, expecting a full dub is way too optimistic).
360 was somewhat popular due to how easy it was to hack it, but Dendy (a "licensed" unlicensed clone of Famicom) and PS1/PS2/PSP are usually the first thing that comes to mind, when you ask people about gaming consoles.
Nintendo did manage to move into the market somewhat, as I see more and more Switch consoles every day, but gaming is hugely PC and mobile-centric in here.
Indonesia.
F2P and Mobile gaming pretty much dominate here.
Core gaming is considered niche here as its really really expensive (monthly minimum wage is like 200-300$). There was a time when core gaming is a mainstream thing, but kinda ended when console getting harder to pirate (PS1 and PS2 were HUGE here).
F2P and Mobile gaming pretty much dominate here.
Core gaming is considered niche here as its really really expensive (monthly minimum wage is like 200-300$). There was a time when core gaming is a mainstream thing, but kinda ended when console getting harder to pirate (PS1 and PS2 were HUGE here).
Oh ok I get it so it's quite major then. I guess my follow-up question would be - would you rather play a game in English or in Spanish from another country? I've had to choose which language to set as default depending on the territory, and I only had Spanish LatAm and Portuguese Portugal to work with so I used them for Spain and Brazil, but maybe I shouldn't have?
Textual is as important as voice, since Spain's Spanish uses words and phrases someone in Mexico wouldn't use, some could be considered rude even and viceversa.
Not 100% sure but I'm under the impression that Brazilian Portuguese people can't understand Portugal Portuguese and vice versa. To my ear, they do sound very different - Portugal Portuguese sounds almost like Russian at times, whereas Brazilian Portuguese is very musical with lots of "oo" sounds.
NB - This is only anecdotal using Google Translator. That operates in Brazilian Portuguese and couldn't translate what a Portugal Portuguese person was saying and when translating English, the Portuguese person couldn't understand it as it was in Brazilian Portuguese. What a pickle!
Yes.
Dont know about portuguese but textual castillian spanish is VERY different to textual latam spanish. Never ever try to force "neutral" spanish for your text to cheapen costs. Spain will know and will ask you to patch it. And if you use any Spain mannerisms latam will know and will hate it. If you want to have both markets go always with 2 different translators that know what each are doing for their spanish localization.
And never EVER try to use google translate to transalate your games to spanish. I say this because games from wayforward do and its completely terrible.
In the other side of the coin, for ex wayforward employees, the care they have for localizations yatch club games in their shovel knight games is exquisite. That game goes even deeper using a fucking awesome translator because it tries to play with old castillian spanish and rhymes and its incredible. When they go the extra mile people really appreciate it. Everyone ive spoken abbout shovel knight always talk about their excellent localization.
That isn't true, they're similar and they can both understand eachother completely fine (speaking as a portuguese person that's met a lot of brazillian people), the most different things are the grammar and some mannerisms and slang/the meaning of some words.
Any young portuguese person also has consumed a lot of 'brazillian' media since young and even now (for example clubs here play lots of brazillian music) so they'll know some slang and the meaning of words in both countries.
All this discussion about mexican/spain dub has been kinda "meh" here in Chile for years because we received a mexican dub for the first time with Gears of War, waaaay too late for people who were playing since the eighties, so I think for most people here spanish or mexican dubs aren't really that important. We are from an era than you NEEDED english in order to enjoy gaming, so it was playing the games on english or nothing and most people prefer the first option. In fact the only community I can think here that is "worried" about spanish translations are the Pokémon fans, mostly because they are kids. The only game with a spanish dub that had some respect before the PS3/360 era was Metal Gear Solid, but that's it.
Yeah Belgium here. Have to echo the majority. FIFA and Sony are top dog. Ninty is decently popular.
Xbox usually gets like a super small space with like 3 rows of games all the way in the back in a lot of stores here.
Xbox usually gets like a super small space with like 3 rows of games all the way in the back in a lot of stores here.
It depends on the translation at the end.
There's a concept called Neutral Spanish which is a variant of Spanish that tries to avoid all of the local terminology found in the different countries so that everyone understands it without problem. It works okay! It's true that at the end, you can see how it kinda waves around terms and stuff and it's not really how anyone would talk fluently, but I personally prefer it from a direct Mexican traduction, for example. Spanish fans, in general, would notice it more.
If the translation is way too out there, I would play it in English. But I know I'm part of a weird demography, that writes on an English-speaking forum, reads English pages first and even my work is mainly in English.
I think, for what I can gather from the fansubs industry (lol), that people would prefer a bad Spanish translation that nothing at all.
Brazil here
I had a friend who had an original PS1 game! One.
Also, I don't know many people IRL that play here. I keep wondering where are those people from the sales numbers. Maybe we stop playing here after some age and I'm outbof touch (33 yrs). Judging by co-workers, games are toys for children here.
Many thanks all for your input! Obviously it's difficult to make everything perfect as cost constraints are a very real thing but I'm happy to have at least a better understanding of the situation.
No worries, you're spot on with the Portugal Portuguese/Russian comparison though, to a lot of non-natives that's the exact same feeling they have, I've heard that a lot.
North-East-European here. Gaming culture here is very PC focused (because of history of piracy) although over the past 15 years consoles made massive gains because piracy is no longer of interest to most people and PS4 is amazing value. Wages increased many times and and closing in on western Europe helped with this as well.
One thing I find odd though there is almost no interest in Nintendo games still. Most people see Nintendo as primitive simplistic games for kids. Oh how I wish more of them could experience BotW and see how wrong they are.
One thing I find odd though there is almost no interest in Nintendo games still. Most people see Nintendo as primitive simplistic games for kids. Oh how I wish more of them could experience BotW and see how wrong they are.
I'd love to play some games with greek dubs or translations to practise, so it's good to know that at least sony does it. Do you have any recommendations on PC or Switch?
As for Spain, besides anime, football and adventure games we also have a history with RTS games being really popular here, which makes sense since the historical ones that used existing civilizations do feature us.
I was surprised to find out today that Imperivm 3 was exclusive to Italy and Spain, since that game was really fun back in the day. The previous games did get english releases, but I have seen like three different names for them depending on the region.
There's also a lot of backlash when companies like Atlus or Capcom release their games in English, which is an aspect of the releases that I think gets overlooked from the english community, specially regarding why x titles would sell more or less copies.
We had a huge piracy rate back in the ps2/ds days, but it has calmed down nowadays. There's a LOT of people that got exposed to many franchises during that era, so it's pretty sad that they won't bother translating them anymore. I'm thinking about Ace Attorney in particular.
You're welcome!
At the end of the day, it's just a matter of bringing a game/movie/show/whatever to more audience. Sure, there are cultural bumps, but I'm sure most people would prefer a bad translation that can get fixed mentally via context that not being able to enjoy the content at all.
oh right. Me and my wife are playing some point and click adventures every year. Like Broken Sword 1-2, Monkey Island, Edna breakout and some other daedalus games.
Yep. Though Xbox mindshare is growing among people I didn't expect it to thanks to Game Pass.
But it's mostly just as Patitoloco says. Playstation is fucking huge and has been massively dominant since the PS1, to the point where the popular concept of "playing on your nintendos" to refer to any gaming system/videogame among less gaming-savvy people in Spain became "playing your 'play'" (for playstation), even though there are many, many people who also say "playing your nintendo".
Nintendo was mostly relegated to kids, casuals, handhelds and the few hardcore nintendo fans, but the Switch is breaking these conventions.
The 360, especially the very early 360, was the peak of Xbox popularity. Didn't set the world on fire but it wasn't rare to find people who owned one. Right now, though...
There is a significant PC gaming presence as well, especially among people who are even a little technically-minded.
Finland. PC is more popular on average and PlayStation dominates console market. Obviously Wii and DS were big for Nintendo but even then if I remember right the marker leadership went from PS2 to PS3. Before Wii almost no one had Nintendo home consoles but GameBoy was pretty popular solely thanks to Pokemon. Switch is probably bit more popular than Xbox and obviously selling better than 3DS and WiiU. In terms of top selling games I don't think there is too big difference to rest of Europe outside of FIFA dominance being replaced with NHL dominance (Ice hockey is most popular sport here).
Just a little more info about what patitoloco added. Neutral spanish (but real neutral spanish with only words used in all the different spanish and no mannerisms whatsover can work well in small games that only have tutorial textboxes.
I woulf never used them though for a dialogue heavy game. Much less of you want to give your characters any kind of charm. Not using mannerisms will kill any try to use neutral dialogues for understanding (and i still mean text here) as nobody from anywhere talks using "neutral" spanish as everything will sound stilted and fake.
I completely understand you about costs, i was a game designer and we had similat problems.
Agreed, for most people in Spain "playing with your console"/"Jugando a la consola" is said, colloquially, "Playing the 'Play'"/"Jugar a la 'Play''", "Play" being a short term of "PlayStation". That's how big PlayStation is on Spain. It's used as lightly as "Kleenex" by now.
"Playing the (generic) Nintendo" is also used, specially for older people.
Although I'm not from there myself, I genuinely chuckled because I know this to be true.
From my experience, living in Israel, which seems to have a similar gaming culture to what you'd find in eastern Europe:
- PC gaming is way more popular, especially with millennials since there was no official release of most consoles until quite recently, so you could only get them for a very high price. I remember when I was a kid, only the rich kids had consoles, for example.
Gen-Zs are a bit different - Much more connected to worldwide gaming cultures and trends, and consoles are way more available as well. - In terms of console popularity - The first console I remember being truly widespread is the PS2, so Sony pretty much rules the console space to the point people were calling all consoles "Sonys" or "Playstations". Xbox and Nintendo seem to be doing better this gen, because both got official releases for the first time ever.
- FIFA. Everyone plays FIFA.
- Piracy is quite common, but less so than it was in the 90's
I'm german and I have no idea why the Farming Simulator, or any other sim in the same vein, are as popular as they are. My guess is it's primarily older folks who play it.
At least with it's later installments it became a fairly competent game at least.
A fun fact is that there's even a Farming Simulator e-sports league. If I got this correct it's about two teams competing for points which you get by farming and processing crops within a time limit. There are even pick and ban phases for certain vehicles like in Rainbow Six.
I find that, rather than "for older people" per-se, this is most common among parents whose primary exposure to videogames is buying nintendo handhelds for their kids. Which is practically all parents who didn't play games beforehand.
I don't have a PlayStation, but I think most dubs are in PT Portuguese. Outside of Sony platforms everybody plays in English.
France mainland :
PlayStation is still the favourite against Microsoft. There was a shift when the X360 came out, people started to be unbiased and people who would never buy a XBOX made a leap of fate.
Nintendo is considered by the mass as console for kid because Mario/Zelda/Pokemon and subpart consoles since the Wii. Even though the GameCube never was really hot and that's maybe because of the lack of Third Party support.
Piracy was big on PS2 and Nintendo DS. Parents would come to GAME and ask piracy device for their kid's consoles.
PC Gaming is for nerd basically.
People care a lot for COD/FIFA release. Kids are all over Fortnite.
French caribbean islands/overseas:
I had young neigbours living around my granny house who loved to play ISS and Killer Instinct back in the day.
My cousin was always playing KOF 98 or ISS Evolution on PSX. Feel like we always played competitive games.
Piracy was a major thing in the PSX and so on, games and consoles were expensive and even more in the caribbean. People who have family in the mainland would rather import it while visiting than paying the crazy price tag.
PlayStation is still the favourite against Microsoft. There was a shift when the X360 came out, people started to be unbiased and people who would never buy a XBOX made a leap of fate.
Nintendo is considered by the mass as console for kid because Mario/Zelda/Pokemon and subpart consoles since the Wii. Even though the GameCube never was really hot and that's maybe because of the lack of Third Party support.
Piracy was big on PS2 and Nintendo DS. Parents would come to GAME and ask piracy device for their kid's consoles.
PC Gaming is for nerd basically.
People care a lot for COD/FIFA release. Kids are all over Fortnite.
French caribbean islands/overseas:
I had young neigbours living around my granny house who loved to play ISS and Killer Instinct back in the day.
My cousin was always playing KOF 98 or ISS Evolution on PSX. Feel like we always played competitive games.
Piracy was a major thing in the PSX and so on, games and consoles were expensive and even more in the caribbean. People who have family in the mainland would rather import it while visiting than paying the crazy price tag.
Yep, you're right, I think the germ is either the GameBoy (which is also used generically as "handheld") or the Super Nintendo.
You're welcome and to add to stuff you've heard, Mexican Spanish is considered neutral in Central and South America due to Mexico exporting a lot of tv shows and other kind of media to those countries.
South Korea is still pretty much taken over by PC gaming as it was in past two decades. Online gaming is very strong, spawning dedicated gaming cafes named PC bang. One odd thing is that almost nobody ever plays Fortnite; kids would rather go play some Nexon's F2P stuff instead.
On the flip side, the console market has been growing fast recently, particularly the Nintendo Switch like everywhere else in the world. This is huge contrast to previous generation, where the Nintendo 3DS had lackluster lineup and Wii U wasn't released in the country at all.
On the flip side, the console market has been growing fast recently, particularly the Nintendo Switch like everywhere else in the world. This is huge contrast to previous generation, where the Nintendo 3DS had lackluster lineup and Wii U wasn't released in the country at all.
I think it's fair to group the whole Middle East under the umbrella of COD, FIFA and battle royale flavor of the month. At least that's from what I have noticed.
Oh and Sony domination.
Oh and Sony domination.
I'm an uruguayan living in Spain and I'm used to english voices and cant' stand any spanish dub, but people here in Spain can't understand that and we've had some serious arguments regarding that.
Samea s you, but I saw exactly two, oddly enough I saw more Dreamcast original games (also that console had a lot of pressence back in the day in Venezuela). Venezuela's gaming market is close to completely being piracy, but that's because there is simply no money for original stuff. I was in the lower steps of middle class for large parts of my life but until I got to Spain I would have never been able to in any way get a console. I'd have gaming PCs because we needed a PC at home, pretty much.
As a result, I think in Venezuela the gaming community is largely PC dominated, but I might have been living in a bubble.
Here in spain is mostly Sony, though PC gaming is popular. The Switch seems to be a distant third, Xbox is almost non existant. I remember in magazines in the 90s there was a huge Amiga community as well.
A lot of PC here in Sweden. PlayStation and Nintendo are big, but most of all competitive PC games and strategy games are huge here. As someone who doesn't really like most competitive PC games or the culture surrounding them it's a bummer, but it is what it is, there's nothing wrong with it.
Yep, Xbox went from fighting Sony almost 1:1 to being almost irrelevant here.
Every retailer had the same amount of space reserved for both companies, and now the Xbox booths are like super small. Glad they even ackownedlge it at all lol.
Wonder if Microsoft will be able to counter their terrible choices made this gen. Here's some hope they will come to being relevant again (not to fighting Sony 1:1 because it's impossible as of now)
Yes, most do, but 1) not everyone has a powerful enough PC to run the modern games, and 2) it's much more fun when you gather with your friends in one place instead of just meeting online. PC bangs are nearly as commonplace as karaoke boxes.
Completely comprehensible, we're lucky to have such a rich and vast language, that makes it also really diluted and at the end, a lot of countries have different ways of speaking it.
It's impossible for everyone to like every dialect, hell I live in Spain and I don't like how a some Spaniards from other communities talk lol
I'm not from Spain but thanks to spanish magazines imported in Chile we all know here that the country was dominated in the eighties by microcomputers and Amiga, and even some people at the 8-bit era hesitated to move from microcomputers to NES at the time. I think the UK had a similar experience.