DUBAI // Video gaming is a global industry, but more often than not the language used in the latest first-person shooter or racing simulator is English, or maybe French.
If there’s one question console makers are asked over and again at trade shows across the globe it’s why there is a lack of local language support for their games. To meet that demand, and perhaps shield executives from further browbeating, on Thursday developers attending Games 14 in Dubai, the region’s largest video games convention, announced the release of Arabic language packs to cater to the Middle East.
Sony was the first company to announce an Arabic language feature, for its new PS4 console, while rival software developers Microsoft said they are working on Arabic voice recognition for the new Xbox One machine, which launched in the UAE this week.
“Whenever I come to a trade show the number one question I get is on when they’ll see Arabic games,” said Robert Fisser, general manager of PlayStation in the region at Sony.
“They were concerned how seriously we take the region. Now finally I have an answer for those people.”
The firm has included Arabic language support in its software development kit its sends to game studios, meaning that incorporating the language into a game will be as easy as English or French.
Mr Fisser said there had been more than one million PS4 units sold in the Emirates since the console went on sale last year, despite the lack of local language support.
“The question I always ask to colleagues in the UK, is would they have been able to achieve the same figures there if the game was only available in French or German?”
The move toward Arabic language games started with local firm Tahadi, which translated online games Heroes of Gaia and Runes of Might into Arabic.
The company was followed by THQ, which released the Wall-E game on Xbox in 2009 - the first major console release in Arabic. Pluto Games, the local distributor for THQ as well as Konami and Capcom, was instrumental in ensuring that happened.
“It’s the games developers who have been leading the way with this,” said Paul Johnson, senior manager at Pluto. “It’s something the console developers have seen and are now acting on.”
However, there are some cultural challenges.
“You have to be careful over which games you decide to localise,” he said. “Anything that has nudity, sexual themes, drug use and alcohol, obviously is a no-no. They’re not going to localise Grand Theft Auto any time soon.”
The Games 14 conference was attended by hundreds of gamers who welcomed the news.
“Of course, it would be great to have it in Arabic,” said Hashem Al Hariri, 26, from the UAE. “For me, I speak English so it’s not really a problem, but many people here don’t, so for them it’s really good.”
Saeed Ahmed, 21, also from the UAE, said it wouldn’t really affect his decision whether or not to buy one console or another.
“I have been waiting to buy the Xbox One,” he said. “Even if it doesn’t have Arabic, it’s no problem for me.”
Kerim Ozbakirci, manager of Xbox for the region at Microsoft, said it was something the company was in the process of developing.
“Our console is a little more sophisticated in how you control it,” he said. “You can use a controller, but you can also use voice or gestures.
“That’s why it takes way more than just localising a dashboard, you need to localise accents and dialects. We are working on it, to make it available hopefully soon.”
He said it was clear there was a demand for the feature. “There’s a lot of need for it,” he said.
“A lot of people speak English here, but not everyone does. I’m Turkish, and I would love to be able to play a game in my own language.”
Games 14 is held from 1pm at Dubai Trade Centre on Friday, and from 12pm on Saturday.
mcroucher@thenational.ae