Arabic Game Localization, ( )
The Rundown
loclait came to be because someone had to ask—
Anyone wanna try doing Arabic localization right?
Quality first, and human centric in our approach to localization.
Hand-picked Arabic localization specialists.
Fully accountable for the caliber of our work.
Ethical industry practices at our core.
Excellence always guaranteed.
Why loclait?
✦ Exhibit A
The Singular Vision.
Teamwork makes the dream work.
Except when it doesn't.
When you hire a translation agency, your game's script rarely goes to an internal team. It's often subcontracted to a
hastily put together band of freelancers.
It's then left at the mercy of far more than the skill, coordination, and communication of these mercs for hire—their colliding visions, judgments, and tastes.
As it goes, what's everybody's business is nobody's business.
We believe in democracy, but a narrative's soul is rarely shaped by one.
loclait gives your script its singular right Arabic vision.
That vision is the personal handiwork of our Director, Seif Chaib.
A career-long Localization Editor and Language Lead with 6+ years in the industry.
He's notably the Arabic voice behind The House in Fata Morgana, To The Moon, Return of the Obra Dinn, Tunic, Dicey Dungeons, and many, many more.
Was Your Arabic Botched?
Most devs can't spot a disasterous Arabic localization until their recent reviews are draped in rouge. Can you?
✦ Exhibit B
The Uncompromising Standard.
Years of watching it go wrong has its perks.
The Arabic localization industry has a dirty little secret:
It's counting on you not knowing better.
MENA is an emerging gaming market—a free for all gold rush. There are hardly any standards of quality, so there's very little incentive to even put in the bare minimum.
And nailing Arabic requires much more than the bare minimum.
Amateur-tier work and broken implementations are the norm, not the exception.
Yes, even when - especially when - you trust the biggest multilingual providers around.
And as player standards rapidly mature alongside this market, expectations shift. What once passed for acceptable can quickly turn into an overnight embarrassment.
We've witnessed this broken system crash and burn. Again, and again, and again.
But watching trainwrecks happen in slow-mo has its perks.
It led our director to distill exactly what makes an Arabic localization click into a replicable standard—then founded loclait to make that standard non-negotiable.
✦ Exhibit C
The Winning Formula.
Exceptional localization is never a fluke. But don't take our word for it.
loclait's workflows have been engineered to outright repulse mediocrity.
Those who can't stand the heat are swiftly escorted out of the kitchen.
Our entrance test is rigorous, our general style guide sits at ~25k words, and we never skimp on feedback or performance reviews—even with our most senior contributors.
We wear the diva moniker as a badge of honor.
That unrelenting pursuit of perfection made loclait's name an Arabic seal of quality.
We're staking our reputation on each project we take on.
That's why we're rather picky about the projects we associate with, the clients we work with, the studios we partner with, and especially about the talents we hire and retain.
Big or small, it's never just another gig.
"Arabic translations depend on the translator. You get some who mangle the script, and then you get some like in Urban Myth Dissolution Center, who breathe life into the game and it turns out absolutely amazing"
"When work is done with passion, this is the result. They didn't leave a single detail without giving it full attention."
"I usually don't strongly support "localization", here they applied it in a perfectly moderate manner, which breathed life into scenes and dialogues and increased my immersion."
"I didn't have any expectations for it, but I'm loving it. You can feel the translator having fun rendering every letter the original writer wrote."
"God bless, cooking as usual"
"I bought it because I knew the Arabic localization was awesome and I'm very happy with it 🤓🫶"
"The amount of creativity in the translation took me out"
"Wow, honestly the work is so delightful that I feel like replaying with their translation."
"Fun game and the Arabic translation is a masterpiece. Highly recommend"
"Worth experiencing. And what made the experience better was the official Arabic translation"
"Okay, I got addicted to the localization"
"Ooooh, this is right on point. I stopped playing earlier, but I'll be back with the localization"
"Absolute cinema 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️"
"The best Arabic localization I've seen."
"I love 'em, bros"
"Bless you, your Arabic localization improved my playing experience ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️"
In Their Words
“Seif goes above and beyond to make sure my games are brought to Arabic speakers in the best way possible. I always enjoy working with him.”
“We highly recommend LocQuest and loclait for game localization!”
The Offerings
Arabic Localization
Our specialty—and what sets us apart—is the ability to mirror your narrative's tone of voice in Arabic and channel it. We craft localizations that don't read like translations.
Artistic Adaptation
Willing to go the extra mile to show Arabic audiences you care?
We provide logo and in-game graphics localization, expertly crafted to replicate original art.
Quality Assurance
We provide additional testing to make sure your Arabic localization looks, reads, and displays right.
Our implementation guarantees a quick LQA process.
Localization Engineering
Dealing with Arabic in game engines can get tiring & expensive fast. We've got the process down to an easy-to-follow checklist.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Languages Do You Offer?
We only sell what we're best at—Arabic. But if you also need other languages, we can point you in the right direction.
Our Arabic localizations mainly use Fusha, a.k.a. 'Modern Standard Arabic'. Fusha is the universal Arabic variant understood by all Arabic speakers.
When appropriate, we deploy a middle ground between Fusha and dialects dubbed the 'White Dialect', allowing us to introduce select modern slang into the mix without losing any of the universal understandability of Fusha.
How Fast Can You Work?
We average 1.5k — 2.5k words per translator per day.
For better, more consistent results, we avoid having too many cooks in the kitchen. Only two to three translators handle a project at any given time.
Do note that daily output doesn't translate linearly to progress with Arabic. Arabic may—and likely will—take longer than your other planned localizations.
Right-to-Left languages may require trial and error to implement properly, more time to edit the translations to cover for rendering pitfalls, and so on.
Do You Use AI?
No.
The outstanding reputation our localizations have built for our clients across the MENA region is the direct result of human skill and craftsmanship.
We don't believe in 'humans in the loop.' Here, humans are the whole loop. If you're seeking AI services, you'll (very) quickly find them—just elsewhere.
Do You Accept Outsourced Work?
Yes! loclait is the trusted Arabic provider for several multilingual partners.
However, we only handle external projects when we can guarantee quality—and that's only possible when we're allowed full ownership over the results.
Meaning: only when we're hired to do our thing, not 'white-label' work.
We don't integrate into existing Arabic teams, and we don't accept projects where our studio name is omitted in favor of crediting individual contributors.
What Do You Translate?
Our bread and butter is game localization.
But we've always leaned towards the written word in all its forms—that's why we excel at handling large, dense, and prose-heavy genres like Visual Novels.
loclait is tailor-made for adapting narratives, regardless of their artistic medium. We're comfortable tackling Novels, Series, Shows, Comics, Manga, and more.
For live examples, please visit our 'Samples' page.
Will You Bleed Me Dry?
Hopefully not!
Despite landing in the premium category, our pricing is vastly more affordable than that of multilingual agencies due to our structure and location.
However, what is affordable in one place might not be as affordable in another. We always try to accommodate the budgets of indie creators within reason.
Do You Outsource Your Work?
No. The few times we did, the process seldom proved worthwhile.
While loclait initially outsourced technical and graphics services and was open to integrating into existing Arabic client teams, that is no longer the case.
To retain our commitment to our singular vision and continue delivering results of the caliber our clients expect, we've permanently discontinued all outsourcing partnerships and moved all of our offerings in-house.
What's Up With The Name?
loclait is a composite of the words 'loc (alization)' and 'lait (milk)'.
With that newfound knowledge, you're probably expecting a good story while marveling at the self-restraint not riddling our copy with horrendous puns took.
Sorry to disappoint. There's no special meaning behind it, and we kinda loathe gimmicks. It sounded nice and our founder loved milk, as all great villains do 🥛.