History of video game localization in Poland
History of video game localization in Poland

Summary/Abstract: The primary focus of the present article is the development of practices aimed at creating new language versions of video games in Poland. The historical outline concentrates on various forms that video game localization practices took throughout the years and juxtaposes them with global localization trends. Firstly, the initial attempts in the 1980s are discussed. Some of those projects were just adaptations of video games developed outside Poland and were not officially called localizations. Next, the first official distributing companies in Poland of the 1990s are described. The topic of gaming magazine articles which in the final decade of 20th century resembled user manuals is also discussed. Then the focus is on the first official localizations involving voice acting. After that, the process of illegal video game localization in Poland is discussed with the multifarious forms it took, the manners of combatting this phenomenon and a variety of examples. Later the turn of the centuries is depicted. This period witnessed numerous successful Polish localizations, which were prepared with considerable attachment to the quality of translation. The first decade of 21st century was the time when most Polish localization companies were established. The change of localization approach at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century is discussed further. The 2010s provided more examples for partial localizations. The possible reasons for such an approach are also provided. However, these were also the times of a constantly growing number of English localizations of games developed in Poland. Subsequently, the discrepancy between the localizations commissioned by larger and independent companies are compared. Finally, the developments of the early 2020s are shown.

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