Game Localization · All Services
Mobile Game Localization
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Mobile gaming generates over $90 billion in annual revenue globally — and localized games consistently outperform English-only releases in non-English markets. Mobile game localization differs from desktop or console: shorter play sessions mean UI clarity is critical, App Store metadata directly impacts discoverability, and player retention in non-English markets is highly sensitive to translation quality. SandVox provides end-to-end mobile game localization for iOS and Android titles.
Unique Localization Challenges
- App Store Optimization (ASO) requires native-quality metadata in each target language — poor translations directly reduce organic search visibility
- Mobile UI constraints are tight: buttons, tooltips, and notifications that fit in English often overflow in German or French without careful localization engineering
- Push notification copy in non-English languages must be punchy and culturally relevant — not just translated from English originals
- Rating and review language indicates localization quality before players reach the game — early player sentiment in each market matters
What We Localize
- Game UI & Strings
- App Store Metadata (iOS + Google Play)
- Push Notification Copy
- Onboarding & Tutorial Text
- In-App Purchase Descriptions
- Player Support Content
- LocQA
Our Process
- String extraction and engineering review (identifying UI constraints per platform)
- Native translation with gaming-specialist translators per language
- In-context LocQA review (truncation, encoding, character overflow)
- App Store metadata copywriting in target language (not literal translation)
- Final delivery in localization-ready format (.strings, .xml, .json, or as-needed)
Languages Available
German · Spanish (LATAM + Spain) · French · Portuguese (BR + PT) · Japanese · Korean · Chinese (Simplified + Traditional) · Italian · Russian · Turkish · Arabic · Indonesian
Frequently Asked Questions
What file formats do you accept for mobile game localization?
We work with iOS .strings files, Android strings.xml, JSON, XLIFF, CSV, and most industry-standard formats. If you use a localization platform (Crowdin, Lokalise, Phrase, Transifex), we can integrate directly.
Can you localize App Store and Google Play metadata in addition to in-game content?
Yes — and this is often the highest-ROI localization investment. App Store metadata in native-quality target language directly improves organic discoverability in that market. We treat it as copywriting in the target language, not translation from English.
How do you handle mobile UI text constraints during localization?
Our engineering review phase identifies all character limits before translation begins. Translators receive constraint notes per string. LocQA review catches any overflow, truncation, or encoding issues before delivery.
Do you support ongoing localization for live-service mobile games?
Yes. We operate weekly delivery cycles for live-service games — events, seasonal content, new feature strings — with established translation memory ensuring consistency across updates.
Start Your Mobile Game Localization Project
Tell us your word count, target languages, and timeline. We’ll send a quote within one business day.
Frequently Asked Questions
For most mobile game genres, the highest-ROI localization languages in order are: Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, French, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish (LATAM), Arabic, Turkish, Thai, Vietnamese, and Indonesian. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean players have high spending power and strong preferences for localized content. Arabic and Turkish are fast-growing markets with relatively low competition. The exact priority depends on your genre — casual/hyper-casual games prioritize by market size; competitive and RPG titles should weight East Asia heavily.
Mobile games are typically shorter than PC/console titles — a casual mobile game may have only 2,000–10,000 words of UI text, while a mid-core RPG might have 50,000–200,000 words. A minimal UI-only mobile game localization (2,000 words) into 10 languages costs roughly $2,000–$7,000 total at standard rates. A full mid-core RPG (100,000 words) into Japanese costs approximately $18,000–$35,000. SandVox offers mobile-specific packages covering app store metadata, UI text, and in-game content in a single workflow.
It should. App store metadata — title, short description, long description, keywords, and screenshots — has significant impact on ASO (App Store Optimization) in each market. Directly translating English metadata rarely performs well; metadata should be transcreated with market-specific keyword research for each language. SandVox includes app store metadata localization in all mobile game projects and can provide ASO-optimized metadata for the App Store, Google Play, and regional stores (South Korean One Store, Chinese app stores).
Yes — most mobile games ship text-only or with minimal audio. Voice-over is expensive and rarely required for mobile genres. The exception is narrative mobile games (otome games, narrative RPGs, interactive fiction) where voice-over is part of the product experience. For these, Japanese and Chinese players often expect full voice casting. For casual, puzzle, and strategy mobile games, high-quality text localization is sufficient. SandVox handles text-only mobile localization as a standard offering.