For some studios, the instinct is to start with the entire game. For others, localization begins with a few ads and a store listing. Both approaches can make sense depending on the product, but they solve different problems.
During our LinkedIn Live with Robin Ng, founder of Grabber Media, one point came through clearly: the first localization priorities should be the places where players decide whether to engage with the game at all.
That means the store page, the core UI, and the first pieces of communication players encounter. From there, localization can expand into deeper game content, community, support, and live operations—depending on how language-dependent the experience is and how seriously you intend to invest in the market. For the broader regional framework, see How to Enter Southeast Asia’s Game Markets.
Start with the acquisition path
Before a player experiences the game, they experience the marketing around it. That journey may begin with an ad, a creator video, a social post, a recommendation, or a store-page visit. If those touchpoints are not localized, the launch can lose players before they ever install.
Robin Ng describes seeing this directly: publishers run campaigns in markets such as Indonesia or Thailand using English or another foreign language, and the mismatch hurts conversion. Even when the ad itself is localized, sending a player to a store page they cannot comfortably understand creates the same problem. That is why he treats the store page as a must-have starting point.
In this clip, Robin Ng explains why store pages and core UI should be among the first localization priorities when entering a Southeast Asian market.
Start with the store page and core UI—the places where players decide whether to engage at all. If campaigns drive people to a page they can’t comfortably understand, conversion fails before install.
The store page is not only about comprehension. It also signals whether the game is actually meant for that audience. A localized campaign followed by an untranslated store experience creates friction at exactly the point where the player is deciding whether the game deserves attention.
The UI comes next because players need to understand how to play
After the store page, Robin Ng points to UI and UX as another essential localization priority. This is not about polishing every piece of text before launch. It is about making the core product usable: basic navigation, common commands, key menus, important instructions, and what actions are available.
If the core interface remains inaccessible, you may struggle to distinguish a localization problem from a product problem. A player who quits because they cannot understand what to do is not necessarily rejecting the game itself—they may simply be rejecting the version of it they were given.
The first localization goal is not “translate everything”
The first question should not be “How quickly can we translate the whole game?” It should be: What does the player need localized for this stage of market entry to work?
At Alconost, we find it useful to think about this as a sequence rather than one all-or-nothing decision. The first layer supports acquisition. The next makes the game usable. After that, localization expands according to what drives retention, community, and monetization. For a related framework by game type, see casual, narrative, and mid-core localization depth.
Layer 1: marketing and store presence
Ads, creatives, social content, store descriptions, screenshots, and metadata. Fast to localize—and enough, for some casual games, to test whether players click and install. It will not tell you whether they stay.
Layer 2: core UI and gameplay access
Navigation, tutorials, core commands, essential system messages, and key gameplay strings—enough for players to understand how the game works. Casual titles may need little; strategy, RPG, or systems-heavy games need more before a market test is meaningful.
Layer 3: retention content
Progression, offers, events, features, quests, character interactions, and social systems. Once you care about repeat engagement, localization becomes part of retention—not only first-session usability.
Language needs vary significantly across Southeast Asia
The region also requires country-by-country decisions. Robin Ng emphasizes that Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia have strong local-language requirements, while the English-language picture is different in Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
Singapore is the clearest case where English can work naturally as the common language. Elsewhere, English proficiency should not automatically be interpreted as English preference. In the Philippines, players may understand English while still reverting to Tagalog or local language in community interactions. In Malaysia, Malay remains the common language even though many users also understand English. The more text-heavy or socially driven the game becomes, the more important those preferences are.
For how to choose which country to prioritize first, see Southeast Asia Is Not One Game Market.
Community localization is part of the launch
He connects localization with trust. Players notice whether a publisher has genuinely invested in the local community. Natural language, culturally appropriate phrasing, and local support can signal that the studio intends to stay in the market rather than simply running a temporary acquisition campaign.
That makes community localization a strategic layer of its own. It can include social posts, community announcements, support responses, Discord communication, event messaging, and creator-facing materials. A game can be technically translated while still feeling distant if every interaction outside the product remains generic or unnatural. For more on community as a growth engine, see Why Community Is a Growth Engine for Games in Southeast Asia.
Machine translation has limits when trust matters
Robin Ng also cautions against relying on machine translation alone for community-facing and culturally sensitive communication. His argument is not that machine translation has no place in a localization workflow. It is that players can often tell when phrasing does not sound natural—especially when local culture influences how something should be expressed.
In this clip, Robin Ng explains why literal or machine-generated language can undermine community trust when local tone and culture matter.
Machine translation can help in a workflow—but for community and culturally sensitive messaging, players notice when the tone isn’t natural. Trust is built by sounding like you belong in the market.
Scope should follow the product: a guild-based RPG and a lightweight puzzle game do not need the same level of localized relationship-building.
Deep narrative localization comes later—or much earlier
Narrative can sometimes sit lower in the initial priority order than store pages and core UI—but only if the story is not the product.
If the story is optional or secondary to highly intuitive mechanics, you may be able to validate early acquisition and gameplay before investing heavily in narrative localization. If the story is the product, that approach does not work. For narrative-heavy games, dialogue, character voice, quests, and worldbuilding need to be localized early enough for players to experience the game properly.
This is consistent with a broader localization principle: localize the content required for the metric you are trying to measure. If you are testing installs, marketing may be enough. If you are testing usability, core UI matters. If you are testing retention, deeper systems matter. If you are testing narrative appeal, narrative must be localized.
Local support and post-launch continuity
Robin Ng links localized communication and support with long-term commitment. If players are expected to join guilds, attend events, follow creators, participate in Discord, and return for live ops, localization cannot end at the game client.
A publisher that acquires thousands of players locally but communicates only through generic English-language support sends a very different signal from one that offers natural local-language engagement. After launch, the workload expands into updates, patch notes, features, events, support, community campaigns, and live-ops content—the market is not won at install.
Live ops bring localization into the calendar
For free-to-play games, a global event calendar can work in Southeast Asia—but it should not be the only source of content. Local festivals and cultural moments give players additional reasons to engage when they see their own celebrations represented in the game.
That can mean localizing more than text: event concepts, visual assets, costumes, promotional materials, and community messaging. Plan enough flexibility for local moments after launch—not just a translated base game.
A practical order of operations
Combining Robin Ng’s publishing experience with what we see across localization projects at Alconost, a sensible starting sequence looks like this.
- Localize acquisition — Make sure the player can understand why the game is relevant before they install it: ads, store page, and core promotional messaging.
- Localize usability — Make sure the player can actually operate the game: UI, navigation, tutorials, and essential gameplay text.
- Localize what drives retention — Once the test moves beyond first-session behavior, expand into progression, features, events, offers, and recurring content.
- Localize community and support — If community is part of the growth model, localize the relationship as well as the product: community management, support, social communication, and creator materials.
- Localize the full experience where the game requires it — Narrative-heavy and complex games may need this layer much earlier. The final scope can include dialogue, character voice, humor, worldbuilding, full narrative, and voice-over where relevant.
The order is not rigid. It is a way to make sure the localization investment matches the stage of market entry. For end-to-end pipeline details, see our game localization workflow guide.
The biggest mistake is localizing the wrong layer
You can spend money on localization and still run a weak market test. For example, you might translate the entire narrative while leaving the store page in English. Or you may localize acquisition perfectly but send players into an interface they cannot use.
In both cases, the problem is not necessarily localization quality—it is localization priority. The most valuable content to localize first is the content standing between the player and the next action you want them to take. Before install, that is the marketing and store experience. After install, it is usability. Later, it becomes retention, community, and live ops.
The takeaway
A simple casual game may need far less localization to begin testing than a narrative RPG. A Singapore launch can tolerate more English than a Thai or Vietnamese one. A community-driven title needs more localized support than a game people play alone.
There is no universal “translate this first” checklist. Robin Ng’s starting principle still holds: localize the points where players decide whether to continue—acquisition first, then usability, then retention, community, support, and live content—adjusted by country and game type.
The right sequence is not about translating the maximum amount as early as possible. It is about translating the right content at the right stage so that the market gets a fair chance to respond.
Continue exploring Southeast Asian game markets
- How to Enter Southeast Asia’s Game Markets: Localization, Monetization, Community, and Live Ops
- Southeast Asia Is Not One Game Market: How to Choose Which Country to Enter First
- Why Community Is a Growth Engine for Games in Southeast Asia
Robin Ng is a Southeast Asia game publishing strategist and the founder of Grabber Media. His career spans more than 20 years in PC, web, and mobile game publishing across the region—covering market entry, localization priorities, monetization, community, and live operations. This article is drawn from a LinkedIn Live conversation hosted by Alconost.
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