Don’t cry all the time saying “Turkish game”

We’ve been seeing similar issues every now and then in the comments to Merlin’s Cauldron for a very long time. “We want Turkish game” or “If it’s not Turkish, I won’t take it.You send messages like “.

For this reason, I tried to interpret the numbers by putting them in front of me. Each of us can interpret what I will write and the data differently. After all, there are many different components for adding an option such as language. However, I will evaluate it by putting the manufacturer to the primary important point.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Language Options

Why is the game not made in Turkish?

I can most easily explain the answer to this with our proverbs: “The more bread, the more meatballs.” Every company is founded with one purpose: to make a profit. Of course, when companies invest in a product, they expect to get a return. Even if it is the first time to enter the market. Of course, he also does his research before entering a market. If it will get a return on the investment, of course, it will enter that market.

The expectations of the companies are not always the same. For example, while some do not expect a profit in their first product, others aim to expect profit with the product they will sell for the first time. Some companies, on the other hand, consider the bond of love and invest without any expectations. These strategies are very diverse. Sometimes there are companies that do not expect any income from any product to be released. With the added value it will provide, they can direct their other products in the market or they can only add Turkey as +1 to their reports in order to be more assertive on a global scale.

Have a look at Crytek. When Crysis was first announced, it appeared with the Turkish voice-over option. I’ll never forget, I was also at the introductory meeting. It created great excitement not only for me, but also for all my other journalist friends. However, with the release of the game, it was very distressing that it took place in the copyists, moreover, in Turkish. Think about it, the company has invested so much, that game lovers who flock to copycats like a flock of crows while waiting for their game to be sold – and calling them game lovers is an insult to the industry – throws away all expectations.

How is the game translated into Turkish?

Let me talk a little about the process of translating into Turkish. In order to explain this, I will give an example based on my previous experience. Therefore, the figures I will give are based on my experience. About ten or twelve years ago, a very large company (I can’t explain neither the game nor the company because confidentiality is important) asked us for a proposal for localization service. Since the number of Turkish productions was almost non-existent in those days, we did not know much about market prices. Nevertheless, we calculated that we could get the job done when we did our research, subtracted our own expenses and added a small profit, when we made an offer of 40 thousand Euros (remember that today’s 40 thousand Euros has nothing to do with that day) and we passed our offer to the company. This offer was for translation only. So there is no voiceover involved.

The offer sounded very reasonable. However, it was not enough for us to translate only in business processes. In order for companies to be sure of the correctness of the work, they must be checked by intermediary institutions such as our notary public, which is also a second control system, and its accuracy must be confirmed. The figure that company wanted was 150 thousand Euros (not a Turkish company). The producer company evaluated these figures and decided that investment could be made for their first Turkish game. However, as the process progressed, the low game sales in Turkey and the high level of piracy made the company think. Ok, they could have hurt in the first game, but they did not see a future for other productions they would release in the future.

The game I was talking about was abandoned before it went on sale in Turkish. In this process, both the time we lost for research and the disappointment of the team gathered to create the content prevented us from engaging in such a study again.

Turkish game industry statistics

I will present some data shortly. In order to obtain these, it offers data in many fields. statista I used the site. The data I use is also publicly published information for free. Although the reports here are sold for a fee, the ones that are presented openly help us to understand the industry.

We are constantly talking about “the Turkish game industry is this big, this big”. Let’s see together how true this is. There have been many developments in the Turkish gaming industry in the past years. From company sales to new domestic games. The size of the industry was measured in billions of dollars. However, while these figures were being revealed, the figures of the companies sold were also added to this. For this reason, let’s try to understand why companies, even more important domestic companies, do not make games in Turkish, taking into account the figures obtained from digital/boxed game sales and in-game expenditures.

I collected data for ten countries to create the graphs that I will present below. These are America, England, Turkey, China, Romania, Brazil, United Arab Emirates, Russia, Mexico and France, respectively. Although each country has different components according to its own, when we look at it in general, it will show us where we stand.

In the first chart you will see the spending rates for games in 2022. The game economy in Turkey appears to be 748 Million USD. Sounds like a pretty big number, right? However, these numbers should not mean that “Game developers do not care about us despite spending so much money”. You will get the answer in the next tables.

In this table, you can find the figures that the player base spends per person per year. The result of this is that we can see that the Turkish gamers who spend money invest more than Romania, Brazil, Russia and Mexico. However, where this investment is made will answer the question we are looking for.

In the next table you will see how much of the total spend is spent on mobile games. One of the most striking points here is the difference in the ratio that Turks spend on mobile games and PC and console games. The most important point we need to understand is that we do not make many purchases for productions other than mobile games.

I think the point that the zurna calls “zırt” can be seen in this painting. With this picture, we do not spend money on PC and console games as Turks. We spend more money on mobile games. Even the amount that Romania, which has a much lower population density than ours, spends on PC and console productions is on us. In the United Arab Emirates, the situation is not much different.

Of course, in order to evaluate all these, it is necessary to look at the purchasing power of the countries and the sales price comparisons of the games. However, we can see that the dominance of mobile players in our country is the biggest obstacle to publishing Turkish games. The most basic conclusion here is that if we can access the copy, we do not spend money on the game. However, we can easily see that we are extremely generous with mobile games or productions that require the purchase of in-game cosmetics, decks, etc.

The fact that its original use has not become widespread enough in our country prevents us from reaching Turkish games, which is one of our greatest desires. On the other hand, isn’t it quite normal that local manufacturers do not add Turkish support to their games? Some of them develop their products for years without even the slightest investment, the day they are released to the market, the copy is already finished by the players.

We can easily carry this situation to other points where the games are located. Since we are in it, we can show ourselves as the simplest example. If you think that we, as Merlin, are doing this job, which we have been continuing for many years, because we earn money (Almost all of the game broadcasts are in the same situation. They all have to support their publications with different projects in order to continue), you are being deceived. We are in this business because we love the game industry and playing. We are here and will continue to be because we enjoy working to bring you the best content we can.

It is very important for all of us that you know this: the smarter we get together, the more we gain. We don’t have to play every game that comes out on the first day. Nor do we have to play every game. There are many publications that examine them on your behalf. You can read reviews not only from us but also from any publication you want, and you can use your money more efficiently. In this way, you can avoid paying for a production you don’t like, and you can save your budget for the game you like.

Being a conscious player will enable us to reach Turkish games, which is also our desire for companies.

Stay well with the games you will like