Tradução e Localização do menu do jogo Call of Duty - Modern Warfare 2 (2009): Uma proposta de tradução comentada

Abstract

The digital games industry has experienced exponential growth in recent years, becoming one of the most lucrative sectors in the market. With technological evolution, games have started to offer increasingly immersive experiences, with more complex graphics and narratives. This evolution, in turn, has driven the need to adapt games to different cultures and languages, a process known as localization. Localizing games involves more than just translating texts. It requires a deep understanding of the local culture, the players’ habits, and the nuances of the language. The translator needs to strike a balance between adherence to the original text and cultural adaptation, ensuring that the game is understandable and engaging for the target audience, especially from its initial and instruction menus. The aim of this study is to analyze the challenges and specificities of localizing digital games, taking the classic game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 as an example. Despite being released in 2009 and considered one of the best games in the franchise, the game has never received an official localization into Brazilian Portuguese. The choice of this game is justified by the relative simplicity of its menu, which, although objective, presents unique challenges for localization. The need to use few words without compromising clarity requires careful lexical selection and cultural adaptation. By analyzing the original menu and proposing a localized version, this study seeks to demonstrate, through the methodology of commented translation, the decisions made and the criteria used to guarantee the quality of the translation. Image editing resources were used to visualize the translation proposals and make the process easier to understand.