GDC 2014 debuts a fresh batch of Localization Summit sessions

Game Developers Conference 2014 organizers are highlighting a few noteworthy Localization Summit talks for the upcoming March conference, including sessions explaining how to localize Chinese games for foreign audiences, a roundtable discussion on the merits of machine translation, and more. These talks are part of the Localization Summit, one of eight that will take place Monday, March 17 and Tuesday, March 18 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA during the first two days of GDC 2014. First, don't miss a talk from Sony’s Nadine Martin -- a veteran of localization quality assurance -- about how developers can keep their localization QA costs low as development costs balloon and global cross-platform releases become common practice. During her session, titled simply The Future of Localization Testing, Martin intends to question the traditional sequential localization test models and share what Sony has been doing to change the nature of its localization testing efforts -- without compromising on quality. Martin will share what Sony's First Party QA team has been doing to change the nature of its localization testing efforts, what has been driving the changes, what has worked or not, and how quality can be maintained at lower costs without compromising quality. Shaun Newcomer serves as vice president of Reality Squared Games, where he started as the founding member of the Chinese company’s localization department in 2011. Now he’s coming to GDC to share his experience localizing Chinese games for Western audiences in his Localization Summit talk Journey to the West: A Chinese Game Localization Primer. Newcomer intends to offer attendees advice on how to efficiently adapt Chinese games -- everything from the language to the UI, gameplay and monetization systems -- to appeal to foreign players. Finally, don’t miss a rousing roundtable discussion about the merits of machine translation featuring panelists from Microsoft, EA, and more. Titled What is the Place of Machine Translation in Today’s Gaming Industry?, this session brings together a number of experts from the industry: people using machine translation, people selling machine translation systems and people who don't believe that machine translation is useful for mainstream products like games. The panelists will engage in a debate on the merits and limitations of machine translation, and by the end of the discussion attendees should be better informed and able to decide for themselves whether the technology is worth their time. For more information on these or others in the show's growing lineup, check out GDC 2014's official Schedule Builder, which continues to add new talks every week. GDC 2014 itself will take place March 17-21 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. For more information on GDC 2014, visit the show's official website, or subscribe to regular updates via Facebook, Twitter, or RSS. Gamasutra and GDC are sibling organizations under parent UBM Tech