AI machine translation for video games: hot or not?

With LLMs advancing rapidly, many game developers are wondering: Why not use AI for localization? It’s quick, cost-effective, and especially appealing when the budget is tight.

But when players expect immersive experiences, quality is critical. Poor localization can hurt your game’s reputation and even trigger refund requests.

Let’s explore whether AI translation is a good idea for games.
 

Advantages of AI translation in video games

• Combining AI machine translation with human post-editing reduces cost and time by up to 50% compared to human-only translation.
• Around half of AI-translated content remains unchanged after human post-editing.
• AI translation provides good-enough results for out-of-game materials such as user manuals, guides, articles, and store texts.
   

So, what’s the problem? 

• AI does not fully grasp the context of phrases or the author’s intent without human input, making it difficult to handle nuances like dialect, tone, humor, and overall vibe.
• AI often overlooks translation memory, glossaries, and style guides unless explicitly and repeatedly told to use them for each segment.
• Quality drops drastically for rare language pairs.
• Players easily spot poor localizations. In game development discussions on Reddit, one player put it best: “Bad translations are really obvious and lower the quality of the game below if you had no translation.”

How to use AI efficiently in your localization pipeline

• Always include a final review by native-speaking linguists, even when using advanced LLM tools. It’s more affordable than full human translation while ensuring higher-quality results.
• Add as a reference validated translations from previous releases or sequels to build consistency.
• Be language-aware: English is the most suitable language for both source and target when translating with LLMs, so you can use it as a pivot language when translating between other languages.
   

Our take on AI translation in games

AI machine translation is a powerful tool only when used right.

At InText, we have created an AI localization pipeline that keeps the process fast and budget-friendly with AI machine translation while adding the missing layer: LLM-based editing, a review by native linguists, and automated QA.

At the core of our AI localization pipeline is our proprietary AI-powered tool, Hera AI. It enables us to work with complete texts (not just separated segments) and supports reference materials such as translation memories, glossaries, and style guides to keep your content consistent and immersive.
 

While AI serves as a powerful assistant in the localization industry, it complements rather than replaces professional translation teams, especially for games with rich, complex worlds that benefit from collaborative brainstorming.