Localization For Domestic Consumption

EA (Electronic Arts) made a bold move this past quarter using the United States Spanish speaking population as a test bed for expansion into the international markets with the launch of Madden en Español. The proposal brought on by Microsoft and Sony executives seemed convincing. After all, the United States does boast a population of more than 40 million Hispanics (some deem this to be a severe underestimate) and at the turn of the century it was thought that over 28.1 million people in the United States spoke Spanish at home (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). Almost a decade later, one could only imagine the number of people in the United States who boast Spanish as their primary language.

When introduced, Madden en Español was priced, depending on where you shop, at full retail value for the Microsoft version (around $49.9) and slightly less for the PS2 ($29.99) . Since that time, the Microsoft’s version has dropped in price (to $29.99) while Sony’s remained constant. After all, the game was an exact clone of the original Madden 08 only with a new cover (Luis Castillo of the San Diego Chargers instead of Vince Young of the Tennessee Titans), bonus Spanish music tracks, and commentary done by Alvaro Martin of ABC Monday Night Football in Español. Despite optimistic intentions, sales of the game have paled in comparison to the original title which performs consistently year in and year out.

So it remains to be seen, was this experiment by EA an utter failure or merely a litmus tests of things to come in gaming? Bilingualism tends to be a growing trend, not only in the United States but around the world, so one would think that video game developers and publishers would want to target the most people possible to sale their games to. Maybe Spanish speaking American’s lack a strong console ownership base or maybe socio-economic difficulties could be a contributing factor to minimal software purchases of the game. Any number of reasons could be sighted for the lack of Madden en Español’s success.

I can not help but think what it would be like to have a video game with multiple language options much like we now have with DVD movies. Gordon Freeman speaking French while you play through Half Life 2: Episode 2 would be educational and hilarious to say the least. However, because we live in a corporate world and in my case the United States, such a format will never exist. Developers and publishers want to try to get every penny they can out of gamers. This means selling multiple versions of the same game would be much more profitable than adding additional features at no cost. In a future that involves most of the world’s population speaking multiple languages and globalization as a forerunner in how Earth interacts with itself, games might just have to adapt to fit in.