Localization QA

LINGUISTIC TESTING

LINGUISTIC PLATFORM COMPLIANCE TESTING

GRAPHIC AND AUDIO TESTING

IMPLEMENTATION TESTING

REMATCH

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Why Localization, LQA, and Transcreation Are Key to Game Market Success

How to Prepare and Conduct LQA Game Testing: Best Practices

Meet the Team: Flávia Souza

What is localization QA (LQA) testing in games?

Localization Quality Assurance (LQA) testing is the final quality assurance stage in game localization, verifying in game that translated games meet linguistic, cultural, and technical standards for target markets. Testers play through localized versions to identify translation errors, UI display issues, cultural inconsistencies, and technical problems. The process includes linguistic testing for accuracy and grammar, cosmetic testing for visual elements and formatting, functional testing to ensure features work properly, and cultural testing to verify local appropriateness.

Why is linguistic testing important in game development?

Linguistic testing protects your global reputation and revenue by ensuring localized content feels authentic to native speakers. Side's network of 400+ active testers across 45+ languages catches critical issues before launch, from mistranslations that break immersion to culturally inappropriate references. Our native linguists verify translation accuracy, cultural appropriateness, and text-to-audiovisual localization across all major regions. With a 100% First Time Success Rate and 30+ years of experience, we understand that linguistic errors can generate negative reviews, damage player trust, and require expensive post-launch fixes that cost far more than proper upfront testing.

What's the difference between linguistic testing and functional testing?

Side's linguistic testing focuses solely on text-related issues: translation accuracy, cultural appropriateness, grammar, and ensuring localized content displays correctly within your game interface. Our broader functional QA services handle gameplay mechanics, technical performance, and non-text code issues. However, there's some overlap – our LQA team can identify code-level implementation problems specifically related to text, such as string IDs not working properly, text encoding issues, or language-dependent display problems.

What are the most common localization bugs in video games?

The most common localization bugs include text truncation and overflow when translations exceed original text length, causing cut-off buttons or dialogue boxes. Also common are mistranslations and overly literal translations that ignore cultural context, thus breaking player immersion. Technical errors include placeholder text and variable problems when translators accidentally modify code elements, as well as hard-coded strings that remain untranslated. Character encoding issues can also cause special characters to display incorrectly, particularly problematic for non-Latin alphabets.

What does the localization QA process look like for games?

The localization QA process for Side follows our established framework: understanding your vision, requirement gathering, scoping coverage needs, test planning and design, test execution, bug entry and fix verification, and ongoing quality analysis. Side's localization QA process uses comprehensive tools and collaborative methodology. Our linguistic platform compliance testing ensures your game meets hardware manufacturers' language requirements, while graphic and audio testing verifies that translated text displays correctly and audio elements function across all target languages. Implementation testing checks whether text has been properly translated and integrated, identifying string ID or language-dependent issues. Our tools integrate with your development workflow, and universal region coverage enables game releases in any territory and language.