Although AI is causing disruption across creative industries, language services are benefiting as the technology advances. Language experts have been using tools like AI translation for many years now, and they understand the strengths and limitations better than most.
The latest generation of AI opens new opportunities for gaming translation, but the risks are more serious than ever – especially in this new age of generative AI.
So, how is AI enhancing game translation and what are the key opportunities and limitations you need to understand?
How is AI enhancing game translation?
AI’s role in game localisation started long before ChatGPT blew up in 2022. You could argue that Google’s Neural Machine Translation system was the first mainstream AI translation tool, which launched in 2016.
By this point, many language experts were already using machine translation (MT) tools to speed up the gaming translation process. With professional translators using the latest technology, the gains from AI for gaming translation have steadily increased year after year.
By the time ChatGPT hit the headlines, AI translation had already reached a standard where professional translators could use MT to automate the first stage of many translation tasks.
Aside from speeding up the translation process itself, this allows teams to put more focus on quality control.
The key thing here is that AI isn’t replacing professional translators – it is enhancing their performance. Getting the best out of AI for gaming translation requires expert knowledge of the technology itself and its strengths and limitations as a translation tool.
Opportunities and limitations with AI translation
Knowing how to use AI for gaming translation starts with understanding its potential and limitations. So what are the key opportunities and limitations of AI translation for video games?
The key opportunities are:
- Translation speed: Above all, AI speeds up the translation process by automating repeatable, programmable tasks.
- Resource management: As you automate base-level processes with AI, you can dedicate more resources to high-impact tasks that rely on human input – e.g. quality assessment.
- Cost efficiency: Time savings allow translators to manage a higher volume of work in a given time period, achieving a higher return on investment for game translation budgets.
- Scale and flexibility: In terms of volume, AI can essentially handle as much or as little as you need it to, which opens a lot of room for scaling translation strategies.
- Consistency: Combining AI translation with other tools – like translation memory and terminology management – can achieve higher levels of consistency, especially on large or long-term projects involving many language experts.
- Translator performance: Ultimately, AI technology enhances the performance of professional translators, improving the overall efficiency and quality of game translations.
Now, the biggest limitations of AI for video game translation include:
- Quality control: If AI isn’t carefully implemented into a translation system with robust quality controls, then the output isn’t suitable for public release.
- Contextual understanding: AI algorithms can’t understand context in the same way as human translators – e.g. how the game’s story, character backgrounds, settings, etc. might determine the most suitable translation.
- Tone: Contextual issues impact AI’s ability to convey tone for different character types and scenarios – e.g. characters arguing, asking for help, receiving instructions, etc.
- Style consistency: AI translation isn’t capable of maintaining stylistic consistency for the settings, time periods and other characteristics of your game.
- Localisation: Although AI can help you automate basic localisation tasks – like currency conversions, code debugging, etc. – it’s not suitable for handling any of the more creative localisation calls – e.g. localising character designs, locations, etc.
- Cultural sensitivity: AI doesn’t have the cultural awareness required to translate, localise or adapt elements for audiences. For example, this could include historical references, humour, metaphors and other elements.
At the end of the day, the biggest risk with AI in gaming translation is improper use. In the hands of game translation experts, the technology has a lot to offer.
However, game studios, publishers, and developers that use AI primarily as a cost-cutting measure may encounter a variety of challenges.
Make AI translation an asset to your game localisation
Don’t let the limitations of AI technology hold back your gaming localisation strategy. Work with language experts who can implement AI translation and other exciting language technologies to create the most efficient localisation process for every project.
Get in touch with us to speak to our team of AI translation and game localisation experts to find out more.