The Translation of Video Game Titles in the Chinese Market.

Abstract

This work discusses the translation solutions applied to the localization of video game titles in the Chinese market and how they are influenced by cultural, political, media, and consumer factors. It starts with an introductory contextualization of the unique features of the translation of video game titles in China through history, then examines the translation solutions adopted in the case of the most widely accepted versions of top-rated video games in the Chinese target market, revealing that literal, meaning-preserving approaches have become predominant over time, surpassing semantic-altering methods. Nevertheless, various types of modifications have been observed in the translation of video game titles due to linguistic and cultural differences. Even mistranslations are officially adopted as long as they have gained widespread recognition. In the future, video games imported into the Chinese market may receive a unified Chinese title for both distribution platforms and social media, prompting further research.