Localization in the Gaming Industry

Tell us a little bit about yourself. What has your journey in the gaming industry been like?

Denisse Kreeger, Riot Games: I was born in Los Angeles to an American father and a Mexican mother, and I spent most of my childhood in Mexico, from age 3 to 15 (then Southern California), speaking both English and Spanish. That cross-cultural upbringing shaped how I see the world and sparked my curiosity for languages. I later went on to study Brazilian Portuguese and Italian. Today, I’m the director of localization production and innovation at Riot Games, where I lead teams across production and program management, helping bring our games to players around the world.

I grew up playing console games, so when I moved to London to do my master’s degree, my dream was to work in video game localization. But my path took a detour. I ended up in the film and TV localization world, working at Deluxe Media and later Netflix, where I helped scale their localization efforts globally. Little did I know that that experience would only deepen my understanding of storytelling, scale, and operational complexity, ultimately enhancing my ability to support the vast and layered world of game development. Eventually, I found my way back to games, first at Blizzard Entertainment, and now at Riot Games, and it feels like coming full circle.

At Riot, I lead teams focused on scaling localization, building sustainable pipelines with development teams, modernizing legacy processes, and exploring emerging technologies. I’ve also had the opportunity to contribute to strategic initiatives that position localization not just as a support function but as a critical enabler of global publishing.

Iraida Merrill, Zynga: I’ve worked in localization for around 20 years and am the proud senior manager of the amazing international production team (also known as “Loc Team”) at Zynga. I was born in Madrid, Spain, where the first person to spark my passion for languages was my “senorita,” Mariví, who taught us Madonna’s lyrics and told us all about her world-traveling stories, awakening my passion for connecting to the world through language. After working as a translator and interpreter for many years, I started taking LQA testing gigs as a freelancer and ended up working at Zynga. I have fond memories of my beginnings, for example, working long evenings with developers and managers testing international IAPs for our latest game launches. Fast-forward to today, and I’m overseeing a mature localization process across 20-plus titles developed globally.

Sandra Pourmarin, Ubisoft: I was born in Normandy (France). Since I’ve always been passionate about foreign cultures and languages — particularly those in Canada — I naturally decided to graduate in translation studying English, German, and Spanish.

In July 2004, I decided to cross the ocean and move to Canada to work as a translator before joining Ubisoft Montreal in May 2005. I am presently delighted to act as North Central and South America localization manager at Ubisoft Montreal.

I started this great adventure as a localization project manager. It began with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Rocky Balboa games, and my most recent project was an Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. I embraced a different challenge within the studio in 2010 as North Central and South America localization manager.

Tamara Tirják, Frontier: I am a native of the captivating Hungarian capital, Budapest. Currently, I hold the position of head of localization at Frontier Developments, based in the historic city of Cambridge, UK. A linguaphile from an early age, I speak Hungarian, English, Spanish, German, Dutch, and Portuguese, with limited knowledge of Russian, Finnish, and Hindi. Interestingly, my academic journey diverged from linguistics, as I pursued and obtained an MSc in technology management, with English-Hungarian technical translation and interpretation serving as a subsequent postgraduate qualification.

My journey started as a technical translator, and when the agency I was associated with started receiving game localization projects, I became the project manager for these. I had the pleasure to lead the Hungarian localization for acclaimed titles, such as Fable 2 and 3, League of Legends, and Full Tilt Poker. After gaining experience as a freelance linguist, reviewer, project manager, and localization engineer for both single-language and multilingual vendors, I joined Frontier Developments in 2015 with the mission of establishing their in-house localization program from the ground up.

Erin Ellis, Amazon Games: I’m a localization program manager at Amazon Games in Seattle, Washington, US. I went to school for business, but the majority of my working life has been spent in localization, mostly as a Japanese-to-English translator, English copy editor, or project manager. In addition to Japanese, I know just enough French for people to take pity on me and speak English.

Growing up, I enjoyed games but never imagined there being a place in games for someone like me — a female of color with no talent for programming. Skip ahead some years, and I am teaching English in Japan when I learn Square-Enix is hiring translators. Although I didn’t have a ton of experience, I couldn’t not apply to the game company that made so many of my favorites growing up. To my surprise, they hired me, and suddenly, I was working on games with Final Fantasy in the title and (more importantly) getting hands-on with both how games are made and how they are adapted to other languages and locales.

This led to freelancing and eventually a localization director role at Capcom, which turned out to be far more interesting than I’d expected. It’s a different type of problem solving for sure, but Tetrising schedules and interpreting creative vision across different locales, technologies, and budgets are worthwhile and fulfilling challenges in my opinion, so years later, here I am.

Ruth Granados Garcia, ZeniMax Media: I am originally from Spain. I have a diverse background in linguistics and technology, which has led me to my current role as the global localization director at ZeniMax (Bethesda). Spanish and Catalan are my mother tongues, and I am fluent in English and Dutch, plus I still remember some conversational Japanese. I have a passion for bridging cultural and linguistic gaps in the gaming industry.

My journey in the gaming industry began over two decades ago when I joined France Télécom’s gaming division in Paris and Dublin as a localization coordinator for the Spanish version of Warhammer Online and Dark Age of Camelot. Over the years, I have had the opportunity to work with companies like EA and Nintendo. My experience has ranged from translating in-game content as a freelancer to managing large-scale localization projects with millions of words and hundreds of thousands of audio lines. Joining Bethesda and now Microsoft are significant milestones in my career, allowing me to lead a talented team and work on some of the most exciting projects in the gaming world.

Angela (Yang) Liu, Blizzard: I was born and raised in the small city of Shihezi (which means “Stone River”) in Xinjiang. Now Shanghai is my second home, as I spent my college years here and started my journey in localization after graduation. Currently, I’m a senior localization project manager at Blizzard Entertainment’s Shanghai office. I speak Mandarin Chinese and English.

My journey in the gaming industry began with Blizzard. I was very fortunate to join the Shanghai team back in 2020, where I learned the basics of game localization workflows through Heroes of the Storm and StarCraft 2. I then leveled up my skills working on Hearthstone, World of Warcraft, and Diablo 4, and now I’m still striving to be a better PM for Overwatch 2.

Shifting between projects has deepened my understanding of how a string is born in the game engine and transforms into fully realized words and characters that resonate with millions of players worldwide. I’ve seen how an art sketch and a narrative piece gradually evolve into a character living and breathing with their own stories, and how a game concept materializes into playable, interactive mechanics so distinctive that they define the genre. The combined efforts of all the teams shaped what Blizzard is today, and I feel incredibly lucky to witness the creation of such amazing work.

Vanessa Wood Shallcross, SEGA: I’m director of localization at SEGA Europe based in West London. We are currently in the process of moving offices to Chiswick, so lots of changes these days! I oversee both localization and LQA and have a team of 20. I have been in games since 1996.

I started my career after studying for a business studies degree at Liverpool University, so my background is not language based. I joined Psygnosis, a prominent British video game developer, publisher, and studio of Sony Computer Entertainment (SCEE), known for its work on various platforms, particularly the PlayStation. Psygnosis published several notable games including Destruction Derby, Lemmings, F1, and Wipeout — you may remember them!

I became the first localization manager for SCEE in 1997. After 18 years, I left PlayStation, and in 2014, I joined Bigpoint, a prominent game development company headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. Bigpoint is known for its innovative browser-based and free-to-play games such as Farmerama, Seafight, and DarkOrbit, where I headed up localization, LQA, and narrative design. I restructured the team and completed months of research on various CAT tools, finding the right solution for the business and migrating all content from a massive database with the help of the localization team, over to new technology.

When Covid hit in 2020, my network informed me of a role at SEGA Europe, so I made the move and became head of localization, taking care of a large team. One of my first major tasks was to restructure the team in 2021 when we moved to a hybrid model with increased outsourcing, as this enabled us to upscale and downscale resources.

What is the current impact of your role?

Denisse Kreeger, Riot Games: My role is all about helping localization at Riot deliver high-quality, locally resonant content to players across the globe at scale. I lead two teams: one focused on localization production across our games and content and another focused on program management and innovation. Together, we’re redefining how localization is integrated into product development, content pipelines, and publishing strategies. That’s just one piece of the localization puzzle, working with our localization technology and operations teams is how we put players first, everywhere!

A big part of my work today is also around change leadership: helping our organization adopt smarter more data-guided, and tech-enabled ways of working. That means improving our workflows, investing in automation, and driving cross-functional alignment, all while keeping player experience and cultural authenticity at the heart of what we do.

Iraida Merrill, Zynga: I am heavily involved in defining the localization team strategy and the team’s goals every year. I want to think that I have a direct impact in motivating, enabling, and guiding the entire team to deliver high-quality localization, not only on specific projects but on every release across the supported games in Zynga’s large portfolio. My everyday work involves aligning the company’s and the localization team’s priorities: tech innovation, processes optimization, culturalization opportunities, communications, vendor management, people management, reporting to leadership, and more. I collaborate with leaders across departments (from game production to marketing to analytics to i18n engineering) to refine our requirements, execution, and global approach. Additionally, I maintain the clarity and standardization of our requirements and processes as we support the localization of more than 400 pipelines of content across titles.

At the end of the day, these decisions impact the gaming experience for millions of players worldwide, benefiting both our users and the company’s success. It’s a pretty sweet double-whammy.

Most important of all, I am capable of doing all this because I can lean on the hard work of each member of the Zynga international production team, an amazing group of individuals and localization professionals.

Sandra Pourmarin, Ubisoft: The impact of my present role is really motivating and rewarding as this is multifold. I closely collaborate with North Central and South America productions with regard to various localization topics (human resources, budget, processes, etc.). But my role also gives me the opportunity to make a difference for worldwide localization. I collaborate with my counterparts in other zones for more transversal strategic topics, like promoting the optimization of our localization processes at worldwide level, brainstorming career opportunities for the community, and more.

Tamara Tirják, Frontier: I lead a dynamic team comprising five localization managers, four game writers, and a localization tools programmer, with the shared objective of delivering an immersive narrative experience to our global audience. My responsibilities encompass defining the department’s strategic direction, fostering a motivated and efficient team, cultivating strong relationships with stakeholders a, leveraging an ecosystem of interconnected tools, and continuously seeking process improvements while shaping the language strategy for optimal market reach.

Erin Ellis, Amazon Games: As a publisher-side loc project manager, my role is pretty visible as the main point of contact passing content between vendors, developers, and production teams. If I’m not doing my job, there are no words in the game! There is a lot of file, schedule, and finance wrangling, but since pretty much all parts of a game need words, the work generally stretches across the scope of the entire project. On a given day, I could be checking in on narrative and audio progress, discussing ratings issues with quality assurance or content review teams, sitting in on meetings about future marketing efforts or sequel plans, or all of the above.

Ruth Granados Garcia, ZeniMax Media: As global localization director, my role is to ensure that our games are accessible and enjoyable for players around the world. This involves not only overseeing the localization process but also creating a comprehensive strategy that spans from translation to cultural adaptation. I work closely with developers, designers, and marketing teams to integrate localization early in the development process. This proactive approach allows us to plan, budget, and schedule effectively, ultimately delivering a more inclusive and immersive gaming experience for players across different regions.

Angela Liu, Blizzard: As a project manager, I strive to be an ambassador for localization within the development team by introducing internationalization concepts as early as possible to minimize localization challenges down the road.

I’ve learned several key ingredients that contribute to effective communication with the development team. A curious mind encourages you to keep finding the missing pieces in the loc-dev pipeline and spotting opportunities for improvement, while a strong relationship with people ensures that the door of communication is always open. And an empathetic heart helps you navigate difficult conversations with mutual understanding.

Vanessa Wood Shallcross, SEGA: Localization and LQA have come a long way since I started out in the industry. It is now more automated and data driven. I feel energized to be in a global team that works across time zones: Europe, America, Japan. We can’t stand still as we are constantly moving! The volume of traffic we are dealing with is extraordinary. We have the amazing ability to expand markets for our players and create the highest quality of product in the relevant language. My team is very passionate about this and ensures that players can play the games in their native language with the same enjoyment.

What do you love about the gaming industry?

Denisse Kreeger, Riot Games: The gaming industry is endlessly creative and constantly evolving. I love how it brings together people from all walks of life — storytellers, technologists, artists, and strategists (to name a few) — to create immersive experiences that transcend borders. There’s something powerful about knowing the work we do can make someone feel seen, inspired, or connected halfway across the world.

I also love the passion and sense of community both within the teams I work with and among players. Games are a shared language in many ways, and localization enables more people to share that experience.

Iraida Merrill, Zynga: Gaming is always new. I love its dynamic nature and the passion that surrounds it, the passion of its users and of its makers. When you play a game and experience delight, just thinking that you are involved in that delight in some shape or form is an extremely gratifying feeling. Besides, gaming exudes this rare mix of playfulness and serious talent that only other entertainment industries know about. The intersection of creativity, technology, and player experience makes gaming uniquely positioned to connect people across cultures.

Sandra Pourmarin, Ubisoft: I love the gaming industry because it is highly creative, full of different people who are passionate about providing a great experience to players. This creates a work environment with good vibes and energy! The gaming industry is also a fast-paced market, always reinventing itself, and is fueled by out-of-the-box thinking.

If I narrow it down to game localization, I am blessed to have been able to combine my passion for languages and cultures and my keen interest for the gaming industry at work. I really like the fact that I humbly contribute to providing players all around the globe an immersive experience into Ubisoft’s worlds in their native language. This is a life-enhancing experience, and believe me, I learn a lot along the way on languages and cultures — which is a big plus!

Tamara Tirják, Frontier: The gaming industry is a truly unique and special community. It would be challenging to find another industry where individuals are so deeply passionate about their craft. We draw upon our experience and passion as gamers to drive the creation of amazing new gaming experiences. It is incredibly powerful to see how games attract and unite people from diverse fields: creatives, coders, businesspeople and, of course, us localizers, who are a blend of all three.

Erin Ellis, Amazon Games: I love how passionate everyone is about the industry itself. People working in games are so excited to be making new experiences or trying new tech or telling new stories, while fans of games are at least as enthusiastic, which can be really heartening to see. How many businesses get to claim that strangers create reviews, cosplay, or even fanworks about their products?

Ruth Granados Garcia, ZeniMax Media: What I love most about the gaming industry is its ability to bring people together. Games have a unique way of transcending cultural and linguistic barriers, creating communities and fostering connections among players from all walks of life. I am constantly inspired by the creativity and innovation within the industry, and I am proud to be a part of it.

Angela Liu, Blizzard: Creation. Innovation. Connection.Building a game is a delicate dance between chaos and order: the chaos that frees wild ideas from a designer’s mind and the order that carefully guides the process from concepting and prototyping to engineering and completion. Constant innovation pushes the boundaries of human imagination.

Games also connect people. You can team up with a stranger in Hearthstone battlegrounds and experience the unique blend of randomness and skill, ignite Hope’s Light with a friend in Scosglen in Diablo 4, or share your love for Le Sserafim and dance with D.Va or Juno in Overwatch 2. Blizzard has built a world — a sanctuary — for those longing for a break from the material world.

Vanessa Wood Shallcross, SEGA: There is no doubt that we are in the process of great change within the industry with artificial intelligence (AI)-driven text and AI voices. Business is tough; we are all experiencing budget challenges. However, there are huge opportunities for expanding our language pairs and increasing monetization for the business; we have to move forward! We are in a highly technical environment, with incredible teams who are experts in what they do. We have the capability to change, and we are open to it and can make things happen! It is fun, but we do have to spend time putting the effort in and creating the best experiences for our players.