Best Game Localization Services: 2025 Rating

Mobile arcades and non-narrative racing games typically only need their user interface translated. Story-rich adventures and shooters require more attention, especially when your plasma axe needs to sound epic, not like a kitchen appliance. Then there are role-playing games (RPG), where the entire universe often needs to be rewritten in a dozen languages to account for jokes, curse words, and fantasy slang.

To help you find the right partner, I’ve compiled a list of top game localization companies capable of handling everything from straightforward UI translation to complex, multi-language adaptations for narrative-heavy games.

Ready? 🎮

Best game translation and localization companies

To make this list, I looked at a few key criteria 👇

1. Localization scope. All companies here are full-cycle game localization services providers, but not all tick every box equally. Some offer full in-house QA, voice-over (casting, lip-sync, dubbing), platform compatibility, and tool integrations – others… not so much.

2. Language expertise. You’ll often see claims like “100+ languages” on providers’ websites, but that doesn’t always mean they are experts in cultural adaptation, idioms, and dialects.

   Note that every vendor on this list works with native linguists only.

3. Experience. Some gaming localization companies specialize in high-budget AAA games with global launches. Others focus on indie games where creativity and innovation matter more than scale.

   🥸 Quick explainer:

   • AAA games are large-scale, cross-platform games that typically take 2-5 years to develop. They start with budgets of around $50 million (think Call of Duty, Assassin’s Creed).
   • Mid-tier (AA) games are made by smaller teams of up to 200 people, with development cycles of 1-3 years.
   • Indie games are developed by solo developers or small independent teams of up to 15 people.

4. Game genre expertise. Translating a military first-person shooter (FPS) isn’t the same as localizing a medieval fantasy RPG. Tone, terminology, and even censorship rules vary significantly by genre and region.

   Example.

   • FPS: “Tango down. Move to extraction.”
   • RPG: “Only the sword of the Eldergrove can seal the rift.”

   Same translator? Maybe not.

5. Integrations and scalability. Support for specific formats and tool compatibility is a must-have for AAA, where you may need a patch localized in 15 languages overnight. Not every professional video game localization service is capable of this.

💰 Cost: what to expect? I haven’t included a price comparison here because localization costs can vary significantly depending on your project’s size, platform, genre, and language pairs.

But you can check out our Localization Costs and Rates Overview for a rough estimate.

TL;DR: Who’s good at what?

If you're short on time, here’s a quick breakdown of video game localization companies by their main strengths:

Centus

Centus is a localization management platform that provides companies with complete control over their game translation process. The platform enables seamless cooperation between translators, editors, managers, designers, and developers, providing them with a full set of native tools and third-party integrations.

• ✅ What makes them stand out?
  Centus provides near-instant automatic translations that can be refined by human editors. When combined with the use of built-in CAT tools, like glossaries or translation memories, this approach results in the most accurate translations.

  The platform is invaluable for game localization due to its emphasis on real-time cooperation. Using it, companies break down silos and synchronize localization workflows across narrative design, voice design, UI design, and development teams.

• ⚠️ Things to consider. While Centus provides a full suite of localization tools, it doesn’t offer translation talent. Therefore, companies using Centus delegate the manual part of the translation process to external vendors or in-house team members. This setup allows game developers to maintain strict quality control and retain linguistic expertise within the company.

Keywords Studios

Headquartered in Ireland, Keywords Studios is the gold standard in gaming localization services. The company works with 24 of the 25 largest game developers and contributed to nearly two-thirds of the Game Award winners in 2023.

🎮 Clients: Activision Blizzard, Bandai Namco, Bethesda, Electronic Arts, Epic Games, Riot Games, Square Enix, Tencent, and Ubisoft. Recent projects include Hogwarts Legacy, Fortnite, and League of Legends.

• ✅ What makes them stand out? Keywords are known for scale and coverage. The company supports more than 80 languages for text and more than 50 for audio and Localization QA (LQA). With over 70 studios worldwide, Keywords doesn’t just localize – it helps build games. They offer a broad range of in-house video game localization services and even art and game development, with full localization engineering teams and flexible integrations. All this makes Keywords a one-stop partner for large AAA releases, simultaneous multilingual launches, and ongoing content pipelines.

• ⚠️ Things to consider. Keywords is great for AAA shooters and action titles, but if you’re looking for a deeply creative localization of emotional, narrative content, it’s better to consider another provider. Keywords provides very accurate translation using AI technology to deliver at scale, but they can undercut nuance.

PTW (Pole to Win), rebranded as Side

Established in 1994 in Japan, Side has grown into a global leader in game localization and LQA, with more than 40 offices worldwide. Side covers over 90 language pairs and offers complete game translation services, including translation, culturalization, LQA, voice-over, and strong in-development support.

🎮 Clients: Square Enix, Capcom, SEGA

• ✅ What makes them stand out? Like Keywords Studios, Side specializes in large-scale AAA projects and fast turnaround. It can support Game-as-a-service (GaaS) pipelines and multilingual releases. Side is especially strong in Asian markets and is known for its high testing standards, platform compliance, and deep in-dev support, which helps studios localize during production, not after.

• ⚠️ Things to consider. While Side works well for Asian RPGs and character-rich IPs, its focus on scale and speed can limit its ability to deliver deeply creative localization and detailed regional adaptation. Also, despite end-to-end support, some services, like voice-over production, are managed through partners or external vendors rather than in-house.

🧐 Did you know? Culturalization can go beyond text. In some Asian markets, like China, bones and skulls can be censored – World of Warcraft had to remove them entirely. Providers with strong in-region expertise and in-development support can better handle such changes before they become costly fixes.

Lionbridge Games

Lionbridge is a US-based, world-leading LSP with a network of half a million linguists worldwide (yes, you read that right 🤯). Although their gaming division is relatively new – about 10 years in – Lionbridge Games offers end-to-end localization, including translation, testing, audio, and marketing.

📖 Relevant reading: 12 World Top Localization Service Providers

🎮 Clients: Square Enix, NCSOFT, Ubisoft, XBox Game Studios

• ✅ What makes them stand out? Lionbridge didn’t start in gaming translation services, but its tech background and reputation still give its gaming division a serious edge. The company relies heavily on AI and TMS to deliver rapid translation at scale, perfect for ongoing updates, live-service models, and system-heavy titles across mobile and console.

• ⚠️ Things to consider. Reliance on AI and automation comes at a cost. Cultural nuance can get lost, which can be a problem for more emotional and story-rich games. Lionbridge translations are accurate and work just fine for UI and system text, but don’t expect them to nail the punchline in a comedy RPG. Also, their enterprise-scale workflows may feel rigid if you’re a smaller publisher or looking for a more custom approach.

Testronic

Testronic is a UK-based games localization company that initially focused solely on QA. Over 25 years, Testronic has expanded to include localization and LQA services in its portfolio.

🎮 Clients: Square Enix, Nintendo, SEGA, Bandai Namco

• ✅ What makes them stand out? Testronic is best known for game localization testing services, which makes it a strong choice for console games and compliance-heavy projects. This specialization is the reason why Testronic ranks high here, even though it’s not a localization-first company.

• ⚠️ Things to consider. Testronic isn’t particularly strong in localization innovation or narrative adaptation. Integration options are limited, and workflows can feel slow for fast-moving, agile projects. Although Testronic offers voice-overs, they are mostly outsourced, so don’t expect an in-house casting director ready with a mic and mood lighting.

🧐 Did you know? On Nintendo Switch, errors like “Cannot connect to the internet.” must use Nintendo-approved wording in each language.

TransPerfect Gaming Solutions (TGPS)

TransPerfect is another localization giant on our list. Its gaming division supports over 200 languages and handles all aspects, including video game translation services, accessibility, audio, QA and LQA, player support, and even game development.

🎮 Clients: Zynga, Riot Games, Epic Games

🧐 Did you know? TransPerfect isn’t just big — it tops the global LSP market in revenue, outperforming its nearest competitor by an impressive 20%.

• ✅ What makes them stand out? As the top-grossing LSP globally, TransPerfect is built for scale. The company focuses on enterprises and relies heavily on TMS, AI, and automation. If you’re a large publisher managing mobile games, live-service, and GaaS projects, TGPS is built to meet your needs.

• ⚠️ Things to consider. Although TGPS delivers a consistent tone and polished, enterprise-style translations, it tends to fall short in creative or narrative-heavy projects, losing emotional nuances. TGPS’s workflows are scalable but not game-native, meaning they can lack proper in-engine support. Voice-overs are typically outsourced or AI-generated.

Altagram

Altagram is a video game localization company with offices in Korea, Germany, and Canada. It supports more than 60 languages and offers a full range of services, including text localization, audio and voice-over, QA, and culturalization. The company works with fast-growing game developers and publishers – in fact, Altagram clients accounted for 60% of the industry’s growth in 2020.

🎮 Clients: Discord, Square Enix, Thunderful Games, Skydance Interactive

• ✅ What makes them stand out? If you’ve been looking for an indie-friendly, boutique-style localization partner, Altagram checks all the boxes. They focus on voice casting, syncing, and cultural adaptation and shine in tone-sensitive content and narrative-heavy games like RPGs. Altagram is ideal for agile indie and mid-tier projects that require cross-platform support and 24/7 availability.

• ⚠️ Things to consider. Altagram’s strong editorial focus and small-team model also mean limited automation and dev tool integration, sometimes requiring manual or semi-manual workflows. That setup works for smaller projects but is not designed for massive, parallel AAA releases.

Example: Tone matters – a lot. Sometimes, translators have to add curse words to originally clean lines to keep the same emotional impact (Like a Dragon.) It’s not about trying to sound edgy – it’s about matching the tone or making the joke hit right. That’s something smaller, game-focused teams often understand well.

SDL (RWS Group)

RWS is one of the longest-standing players in the localization industry, with 65 years of experience and 80% of the world's top 100 brands among its clients. The company operates from over 60 offices worldwide and offers full-stack game localization services. In 2020, RWS acquired SDL – another leading LSP known for working with top names in game development.

🎮 Clients: Konami, Ubisoft, Sony

🧐 Did you know? RWS owns one of the most widely used CAT tools in the industry – Trados Studios.

• ✅ What makes them stand out? RWS is an industry leader in language technology and linguistic accuracy. They’re known for AI innovations and extensive language infrastructure, delivering consistent and culturally sensitive translation at scale. This makes them a good match for high-volume, text-heavy projects, enterprise workflows, live services, and massively multiplayer online games (MMO).

• ⚠️ Things to consider. SDL/RWS is not game-exclusive and may fall short in game-specific tone, narrative adaptation, and dev-oriented integrations. Game engine support, custom dev tools, and audio services are not their primary focus, either.

Localsoft Games

A Spain-based provider, Localsoft Games, brings over 30 years of experience in video game localization, with more than 3,000 titles localized. The company supports over 50 languages and offers translation, editing, desktop publishing, subtitling, audio, and testing.

🎮 Clients: Nintendo, Sony, Wargaming, Warner Bros, Zynga

• ✅ What makes them stand out? Localsoft Games is a true veteran in professional video game localization service, known for its console localization and certification expertise. It suits mid-tier and indie projects with relatively straightforward dialogues and narratives.

• ⚠️ Things to consider. Although Localsoft Games can scale to AAA, it’s not built for live-service models or high-complexity workflows. Audio services are outsourced, and the provider may struggle with nuanced, deeply creative translation needs.

GameScribes

GameScribes is a US-based gaming localization company with offices in Spain and Hong Kong. They’ve localized over 2,000 games into more than 50 languages and offer end-to-end localization support across various genres.

🎮 Clients: Konami, NIS America, Ubisoft, Zynga, Warner Bros

• ✅ What makes them stand out? GameScribes is known for localization consistency, editorial quality, and creative adaptation – particularly in mid-tier and indie projects. They are also experienced in humor and tone matching, which makes them a good fit for stylized or dialogue-heavy titles.

• ⚠️ Things to consider. The provider lacks integrations and engineering support, so their workflow is best suited to smaller dev teams rather than AAA and live services. Additionally, although they offer voice-over support, it’s limited in scale and scope.

Allcorrect Games

Allcorrect is another niche localization provider that, despite its smaller size, works with 9 of the top 20 game companies. They cover over 20 languages and operate from offices in Ireland, Canada, Serbia, and Hong Kong.

🎮 Clients: Kaizen Game Works, Ubisoft, Bandai Namco, Tencent Games, Nordcurrent

• ✅ What makes them stand out? Allcorect focuses exclusively on games, offering localization, art, LQA, voice-over, and even narrative design – a rare combination among providers. Their strong attention to narrative quality ensures creative translations for stylized genres like RPG or humor-focused games, where tone and idioms are essential. Ideal for mid-tier, indie, and mobile projects.

• ⚠️ Things to consider. Limited integrations and automation capabilities makes Allcorrect less suitable for large-scale AAA releases and live-streaming.

Wrapping Up

Whether you need 20 menus localized by Friday or an elf king’s tragic backstory rewritten for Brazil, these best game localization companies can do both. They are reliable, experienced… not cheap, and yes, you might end up depending on them more than you planned.

If you’d rather keep more control, transparency, and direct collaboration with your own localization team, try Centus — a translation management platform built for game developers who like to stay in the loop (and budget).

Or, if you're ready to take charge of your localization journey, check out our Video Game Localization Guide — everything you need to do it right from day one.