Game translation service: what you actually need, and what to translate first

Two very different jobs called "game translation"

When developers search for a game translation service, they usually mean one of two things, and they cost wildly different amounts.

• Full game localisation: every string players see in the game itself, including menus, dialogue, tutorials, item and skill names, achievements and sometimes voice-over, plus testing it in the build. This is a project, priced per word and usually quoted by an agency or a team of freelancers.
• Store page translation: the text on your Steam page, meaning the short description, the About This Game section, your feature list and any tagline on your capsule. It's a few hundred to a couple of thousand words, and it's what players read before they decide to wishlist.

Both matter, but they matter at different times. Your store page has to persuade people before they can play anything, and on Steam it's live for months before launch. The game's text only matters once someone has bought it.

When you need a full game translation service

You need proper game localisation if your game is text-heavy (narrative, RPG, visual novel, strategy with lots of tooltips), if you're targeting a market where English play is uncommon, or if a publisher or platform holder expects it. A good service will usually:

1. Ask for your strings in a structured format (CSV, XLIFF, JSON or your engine's localisation tables), not screenshots.
2. Build a glossary and style guide with you first: character names, invented terms, tone, and what stays in English.
3. Use translators who are native speakers and who play games, ideally in your genre.
4. Run linguistic QA in the actual build, because text that's correct in a spreadsheet can still overflow a button or lose its context on screen.
5. Quote per word per language, with extra for QA, voice-over or rush jobs.

Prices vary a lot by language and provider, so get at least two quotes, and ask for a short paid test translation before committing a large script. Watch for services that promise very low per-word rates in every language with no QA step: for games, context is everything, and machine output with a light skim is what you'd get.

Questions to ask before you hire

• Who exactly translates my text, and are they native speakers of the target language?
• Do you test in the build, or only in spreadsheets?
• How do you handle a glossary, and can I review it?
• What happens when I add or change strings after launch?
• Can I see examples of games you've localised in my genre?

Why your Steam store page is often the better first step

Steam shows your store page in the player's chosen language when you provide one. If you don't, they see English, and many players skip pages they can't read comfortably. Valve's own hardware and software survey has shown for years that fewer than half of Steam users have English set as their Steam language. In September 2026 it was 34.2% English, 31.4% Simplified Chinese and 9.1% Russian. Every month your page is English-only, you're asking a large share of visitors to do extra work before they wishlist.

A translated store page doesn't promise a translated game. Steam lists which languages your game supports, with separate ticks for interface, full audio and subtitles, so players can see what's covered. A translated page in a language the game doesn't support yet is still useful: it tells players what the game is, and lets you gauge demand from your Steamworks traffic breakdown before you pay for a full localisation.

What makes store page translation tricky

• Steam's formatting tags. The About section is written in Steam's BBCode: headings, lists, bold text and image lines like [img src="{STEAM_APP_IMAGE}/extras/…"]. Generic translators often mangle these, which breaks your layout or your images.
• The 300-character limit. Your short description must stay under 300 characters, and German, French and Russian translations often run longer than the English.
• Names and invented words. Your game's title, characters and mechanics need to be handled the same way in every language, or the page reads as if three different people wrote it.
• Marketing tone. A store page is sales copy. Word-for-word translation of a punchy English hook rarely lands.

How WishlistLab's store page localisation works

We built Store Page Localisation for exactly this job and nothing more. You paste your Steam URL and pick your languages. We extract a glossary of your game's names and terms for you to confirm, then translate your short description, About section, feature lists and capsule tagline into up to 12 of the languages Steam players use most. Formatting tags never reach the translator, every short description is checked against the 300-character limit, and you get one file per language with a short guide to pasting it into Steamworks.

It's AI translation, and we say so everywhere it appears. We don't call it human or professional translation, because it isn't. We recommend a native speaker reviews your marketing copy before you publish: a player from your Discord or a friend often does this in minutes, and it's far cheaper than a full review.

• 5 languages: £39, one-off
• All 12 languages: £79, one-off
• Deep Audit + 5 languages: £59, so you fix the page first, then translate the improved copy

Not sure yet? Run a free Steam page audit. Your result page includes a free translated sample paragraph of your own page in any of the 12 languages, so you can judge the quality before you spend anything.

A sensible order for most indie games

1. Get your English store page right first. Translating weak copy just gives you weak copy in 12 languages. The free audit shows what to fix.
2. Translate your store page into the languages your Steamworks traffic already shows, plus Simplified Chinese if it isn't there.
3. Watch wishlists and traffic by language for a few weeks.
4. Pay for full game localisation in the languages where the demand is real, using a game translation service with native translators and in-build QA.