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Current localization spend between USD 750 million – 1.2 billion in gaming industry shows no signs of slowing down

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, USA, May 25, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- COVID-19 immediately impacted the gaming industry, whose total addressable market (TAM) for user-generated content localization in the player support area is between USD 100 and 180 million. Researchers at Nimdzi Insights, a language services research and international business consulting firm, estimate the TAM between USD 161 and 289 million by 2024 in a recently-published report on user-generated content for player support in the gaming industry.

The report notes that the gaming industry accounts for 26% of total revenue in the media industry -- which includes pay TV, box office, OTT services, and games, and it is projected to increase to USD 196 billion by 2022 (from USD 152 billion currently).

 

Belén Agulló García, eLearning Director and Lead Media Researcher at Nimdzi, highlights that gaming comes with its own evolving cultures and languages. She comments that, “Gamers speak their own language. Their messages are full of internet jargon, gamer jargon, game terms that are not actual words and sometimes include spelling or grammar mistakes. That's the perfect recipe to get a terrible and nonsensical (machine translation) MT output. And yet, MT is widely used for localizing player support tickets, emails, players' feedback, among other UGC content. This report analyzes the market for UGC localization and the main challenges that gaming companies face when dealing with multilingual player support.” The findings are now published and available publicly.

The mobile industry, in particular, is growing at a faster rate compared to other gaming platforms. Other noteworthy UGC content opportunities for localization in the gaming industry include player feedback on social media and the replies to that feedback, player-generated tutorials, game-related information, and wikis, and video live streaming gameplays or sessions.

Nimdzi researchers paid special attention to COVID’s effect on the gaming industry, including localization opportunities brought on by the pandemic. The COVID crisis is having an immediate impact on the gaming industry, resulting in more active players at the moment. However, the lasting impact of the crisis is still to be determined. For example, in China the average game downloads grew 20% in February 2020 compared to the previous month. The average weekly hours spent in games increased by 5% in the United States, 10% in Italy, and 5% in Germany during the month of March 2020 compared to previous months.

Ultimately, states García, “Our estimation is that the current total localization spend in the gaming industry is between USD 750 million and USD 1.2 billion, based on our market-size analysis. With a CAGR of 9% for the gaming industry, this number will significantly increase over the next five years to between USD 1.1 billion and USD 1.8 billion in 2024.” If you are in localization and looking for opportunities of growth, then look no further than the gaming industry.

García will be speaking about the findings this week in an event focusing on user-generated content in the gaming industry.

Joanne Magano
Nimdzi Insights LLC
+1 206-823-3177
[email protected]
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