Arabic Game Localization FAQ
Last updated on October 28, 2024
Table of Contents
Intro
If you’re here because you’re interested in exploring the Arabic speaking market, want to localize your game into Arabic, or are just curious about Arabic localization—you’ve come to the right place!
Arabic game localization is a black box. Most of the high ranking search results for questions about the subject are SEO bait containing many keywords but saying very little.
One of our goals at loclait is to educate where others have failed, and from that goal, this FAQ was born.
This FAQ includes the most common Arabic localization questions we received from our clients, partners, and colleagues, followed by their answers and useful, related resources.
Arabic Gaming Market FAQ
- Q: How big is the MENA (Middle East & North Africa) gaming market?
- A: In the MENA-3 gaming market (Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia) the number of active gamers reached 68.8 Million in 2023.
The MENA-3 market generated $1.92 billion in revenue in 2023 alone, and it’s projected to rise to $2.65 billion by 2027.
The Middle East and North Africa region includes 18 more Arabic-speaking countries, some larger than the aforementioned in MENA-3 combined in population.
↳ Relevant Reads:
✱ MENA-3 Games Market Revenue to Surpass $2.65 Billion In 2027 - Q: Is Arabic localization important for players?
- A: The existence of an Arabic localization is, more often than not, the difference between picking up a game or ignoring it for Arabic speaking players.
As is the case for most markets, the vast majority of Arabic players are monolingual casual gamers. This means that they can only comfortably play low-context non localized games (Sports, Multiplayer Shooters, Platformers, and so on).
Non-localized narrative games tend to be frustrating, subpar experiences because casual players have to depend on guides and inaccurate camera machine translation apps to complete these games.
The absence of an Arabic localization is only a non-issue for a small minority of MENA players—hardcore gamers, who’d usually opt to play in English even when Arabic is included.
↳ Relevant Reads:
✱ EF English proficiency index - Q: How many Arabic speakers are there?
- A: Arabic is the fourth most spoken language on the planet.
Let’s compare the raw numbers for the most commonly included languages in games, known as FIGS (French, Italian, German, and Spanish), to those of Arabic.
Language Native Language Second Language Total Speakers Arabic 380 million 330 million 710 million French 74 million 238 million 312 million Italian 65 million 3.1 million 68.1 million German 95 million 85 million 180 million Spanish 500 million 100 million 600 million The number of Arabic speakers dwarfs all the languages individually, and more than half of the list combined.
Put simply, localizing your game into Arabic unlocks it for more people than localizing it into French, Italian, and German combined would.
The MENA region is a gaming blue ocean, one that is ripe to supersede the current mainstays as a leading market in the coming years.
↳ Relevant Reads:
✱ Arabic - Wikipedia
✱ French - Wikipedia
✱ Italian - Wikipedia
✱ German - Wikipedia
✱ Spanish - Wikipedia - Q: Why is Arabic localization rarely included in games?
- A: It's hard to implement Arabic localization in most engines.
Arabic is a unique language from top to bottom, starting with its script and ligatures to the direction it is written, and everything else in between.
But being unique doesn’t always work in its favor—because it’s a right-to-left language trying to exist in a world built for left-to-right, Latin-based languages.
This makes it relatively more expensive than other languages, as it needs more debugging/LQA hours to get right.
So, developers and publishers who previously had bad experiences implementing the language, or are on tight budgets, tend to forgo its inclusion entirely.
Technical Arabic Localization FAQ
- Q: How hard is Arabic localization implementation?
- A: The one you're likely the most curious about confirming despite knowing the answer.
Objectively, and compared to most languages, the answer is very hard. Arabic game localization can be technically arduous.
Despite the challenge, following basic advice will get your Arabic implementation far. Check the resources below for an overview.
↳ Relevant Reads:
✱ The 2 Fatal Right-To-Left Game Localization Pitfalls, and How to Spot Them
✱ A Variable Parable—Dealing With Variables in Obra Dinn’s Arabic Localization
✱ Help, is this عربي? - Q: Do I have to make my game's UI Right to Left?
- A: The short answer is no.
Mirroring UI elements is very much a luxury in game localization, and one that may be more trouble than it’s worth.
One of the most common misconceptions about Arabic game localization is that an RTL implementation without mirrored UI is somehow “incomplete” or “unacceptable”.
In reality, that’s only true for software. Players are fine with either, and are already used to LTR UIs.
Orientation mirroring is something players only pay attention to when it’s there, and implementing it requires a lot of debugging, resulting in an inflated budget for RTL languages.
In most cases, it’s best practice to leave your UI orientation untouched.
- Q: What game engines are right to left friendly?
- A: Godot, and to a lesser extent Unreal, followed by Unity.
All engines can support RTL languages like Arabic if approached correctly, but the engine with the best RTL support out of the box would be Godot.
Unreal is a distand second, and Unity is a far off third.
Both Unity and Unreal unfortunately offer incomplete RTL support, necessitating the use of buggy RTL plugins and dealing with their unique issues as they come up.
Linguistic Arabic Localization FAQ
- Q: What Arabic variant is best for game localization?
- A: Your default should always be Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), also called Fusha.
Modern Standard Arabic is a standardized form of Arabic, the lingua franca of the Arabic speaking world. It’s understood by all Arabic speakers.
Arabic dialects vary greatly, some bordering on being entirely different languages with very little overlap in understanding outside the regions in which they’re used.
No matter what dialect you use for your localization, you’ll be actively alienating a part of your potential playerbase in the MENA region.
This is why Modern Standard Arabic is the safest, and most inclusive, choice.
↳ Relevant Reads:
✱ Fusha Registers in Arabic Game Localization—What Succeeds, What Fails, and Why - Q: Should I dub my game into Arabic?
- A: It depends. In most cases, the answer is no. In very specific cases, the answer is yes.
Arabic players, both casual and hardcore, generally dislike dubs. Scarce few Arabic game dubs haven’t been heavily criticized both by the press and audiences in recent memory.
The reason for the near uninamous dislike for dubs comes down to the (very) modest standards of both game localization and voice acting in the region.
But if your game targets children or preteens, or if it’s tied to an IP that already has a popular dub, dubbing tends to be a worthwhile investment since it’s more or less an accessibility feature.
Marketing Arabic Localization FAQ
- Q: How do I market my Arabic localized game in the MENA region?
- A: It's often as easy as telling local outlets that your game supports Arabic.
As of 2024, games that include good Arabic localizations are quite rare. You don’t have a lot of competition.
Consider a more laid back approach to marketing than the one you’re used to in more mature markets. The mere existence of an Arabic localization is a selling point.
You just need to reach out to local outlets with a translated press release or one that mentions your Arabic localization, and announce the inclusion of Arabic on your socials.
Word of mouth will usually do the rest.
- Q: Should I translate my store copy?
- A: Of course. But unlike your other supported languages, you may not be able to use your Arabic copy everywhere.
As of 2024, some of the most major game storefronts don’t support Arabic as a display language partially or completely.
This means that even if uploading an Arabic translation for your copy is an option in your store of choice, nobody will ever see it.
This is particularly important to know for indie developers, as they rely on store copy translations for exposure even if the game isn’t localized into that language.
Refer to the table below for the level of Arabic support you can expect from each storefront:
Store Name Arabic Translation Support Arabic Display Support Steam ✔️ Uploading Arabic copy is supported. ❌ Arabic is not available as a display language. Epic Games Store ✔️ Uploading Arabic copy is supported. ✔️ Arabic is available as a display language. Good Old Games (GoG) ❌ Uploading Arabic copy is not supported. ❌ Arabic is not available as a display language. Microsoft Store (PC) ✔️ Uploading Arabic copy is supported. ✔️ Arabic is available as a display language. Playstation Store ✔️ Uploading Arabic copy is supported. ✔️ Arabic is available as a display language. Nintendo eShop ❌ Uploading Arabic copy is not supported. ❌ Arabic is not available as a display language. Microsoft Store (Xbox) ✔️ Uploading Arabic copy is supported. ✔️ Arabic is available as a display language.
Outro
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