Translating video games can lead to surprising linguistic innovation. When Jeremy Blaustein had to translate “現地調達” (genchi chōtatsu, local acquisitions) for Metal Gear Solid, he coined the term OSP or “on-site procurement,” a term that went on to be used by other games and continues to be used today.
Video game translation can also be political and controversial. In Final Fantasy X, for example, ありがとう (arigatō, thank you) was rendered in English as “I love you,” due to the special weight of the common phrase in context. While some fans hailed it as a brilliant translation, others felt the localization process had gone too far.
Other game translations have had cultural impacts for very different reasons: The now legendary meme “All your base are belong to us” stems from a simple mistranslation of a grammatically ordinary sentence: 君たちの基地は、全てCATSがいただいた (kimitachi no kichi wa, subete CATS ga itadaita, CATS [the alien cyborg villain] has obtained all of your bases).
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