I was delighted when Altagram (altragram.com) approached me a few weeks ago about an interview for their website/company blog. My research and teaching practices are based on commercially-available video games with high-quality localization in multiple languages. The fact that a company such as Altagram showed interest in my work gave me an awareness of related areas that my research on video game-based learning and foreign language (& culture) acquisition might impact.

In my interview (available here:
https://altagram.com/learning-languages-through-gaming-interview-with-simone-bregni/)
I make two main points:

I) Some excellent current games are, alas, not localized in Italian (nor in other major languages). Such is the case of  [quotes from the Altagram interview]:

a) “Square Enix’s Life is Strange [….] is an excellent portrayal of the life of American teens in a small, Northwestern US coastal town. Life is Strange has not been fully localized in Italian, which is really unfortunate, because I would have loved to use it in my courses, since it has many topics that would “speak” to my student population, and, more importantly, it provides opportunities to discuss and develop empathy.” [Same goes for the two other games currently out and taking place in the Life is Strange universe: Life is Strange – Before the Storm, and Captain Spirit]. 

b) Tequila Works’ The Invisible Hours: “I am also disappointed that the amazingly innovative and well-written The Invisible Hours by Tequila Works has not been fully localized in Italian. But for ESL students it is an excellent learning tool: being able to observe lip movements up close and personal, especially in VR mode on PlayStation VR, greatly enhances listening comprehension, especially given the in-game ability to review and fast-forward time at will.”

“[…]not all games are fully localized as I feel they should be. Full localization is an investment that I believe all companies should make. The interest that my research and teaching practices have generated (as of today, they have been mentioned in ninety news sources of various kinds, for general audiences, educators and gamers, all over the world) show that there currently is a high interest in video games as learning devices for foreign languages and cultures.

II) The localization of lip-syncing

“I believe that the next frontier of localization will be the localization of lip-syncing also. The market of commercially-available games as foreign language learning devices may be exploding soon, as I am inclined to believe given the positive response I received regarding my research and teaching. This spring semester I was on sabbatical in my native country Italy, and while delivering presentations and workshops at a number of European institutions, I met a number of young men and women who instantly connected with what I was talking to them about, games as foreign language tools, because those kids had experienced exactly the same: they noticed that their foreign language skills improved rapidly while playing video games.

Currently, I believe that the Assassin’s Creed series [by Ubisoft] and games by Quantic Dream are excellent examples of strong localization, which, to me, is much more than “simple” translation. High-quality localization makes every single in-game data and reference fully understandable and accessible to people from other cultures.”

Other excellent examples of video game localization are the 2013-present day Tomb Raider series by Square Enix and the Syberia series by Microïds. The latter has the merit of being suitable for most ages; it is also available also on Nintendo Switch; and it is fully localized in a wide selection of languages (out-of-the-box; the US version of Syberia I, which I own, includes Italian, German and Russian besides the “usual” English, Spanish and French).

PS: Italian Gamers who are familiar with the Final Fantasy series will catch a little typo (which I became aware of, and pointed out tonight): it was FF VIII, not VII [which was alas not localized in Italian until much later. My memory of events that happened 18-20 years ago is not as good as it used to be ;-)]
EDIT on 5/7/18: Thank you Julia Pazos at Altagram for approaching me about the interview. It was a pleasure. And thank you for your prompt edits. 

IMAGE: Life is Strange – Square Enix
Original Image by Spinoziano – PlayStation 4 PlayStation Store screen capture; Copyrighted, https://it.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6161721