How Have These Emerging Languages Performed in 2024?
At the start of 2024 we published an article about languages and regions to watch in 2024. Well, now we’re in H2 it’s time to look back at those languages and see how 2024 has panned out for them so far…
Turkish
Turkish is arguably one of the most important languages to watch in 2024. Turkish has seen support rise consistently over the last two years, and in 2024 it’s finally attaining a level of support that only a few languages enjoy.
Around 35% of 2023’s top Steam releases had Turkish support, either at release or in updates that followed soon after. 35% is already a notable level of support, but as we’ve seen in our other articles like the “Steam Language Support 2006 – 2022” series, it’s when a language hits around 50% support that we see major changes following it. This was the case for Simplified Chinese in 2015, Korean in 2018, and many other languages we now consider standard for localization.
Looking at 2024, it seems this might be the year for Turkish to fully emerge as a standard language for consideration. Analysis of Steam’s top selling games of 2024 so far, focusing on releases that include localized languages, shows us that Turkish is currently seeing support in 50% of these titles. Crossing over 50% support is a major milestone, it seems like Turkish is here to stay.
Some of the reasons for this are a growing gaming population, now totaling over 47 million active players, and a local games market revenue closing in on $1 Billion USD annually. But it’s not just strong revenue and player-bases that are bringing more attention to Türkiye’s industry. In March of this year the Games for Türkiye advisory board announced that Turkish games companies will not pay tax on their earnings, in a bid to grow the country’s industry.
Tugbek Olek, head of the advisory board, said that it’s not just company earnings that receive the tax incentive. Designers and developers will now also be exempt from paying income tax, and outside investments into the industry will also avoid paying any additional tax too. Combining these lucrative tax incentives with the country’s growing revenues paints a picture of strong growth for the coming years.
Revenue Growth in the Turkish Games Industry
Indonesian
Indonesian localization is an interesting case as, while it’s fully supported on Steam, it’s a little behind Turkish in moving from mobile Localization support to PC/Console support.
As of January 2024, Indonesia is the top country for original Steam Titles in Southeast Asia. That total is currently at around 300 games, with average sales reported as between 30,000 and 150,000 copies, generating between $400,000 and $3.2 Million USD. This isn’t completely surprising when you consider that Indonesia has over 174 million gamers, making up 43% of all gamers in Southeast Asia.
The Indonesian government is paying attention to this growth and reacting accordingly. Earlier in 2024 the government ratified Presidential Regulation 19/2024 with the aim to rapidly grow the country’s industry and games revenues.
In 2024 the Indonesian games industry is projected to generate over $1.2 Billion in revenue, with a total market value of $1.79 Billion reported by Newzoo for 2023. This isn’t to say that the Indonesian market doesn’t have barriers to entry, with legal and cultural requirements stricter than some surrounding countries, but it’s strong growth and projections make it a lucrative market to watch. Due to Indonesian’s official Steam support and the continued expansion of services like GeForce Now we’re very likely to see Indonesian becoming the 5th Asian language to become a standard inclusion for localization.
Indonesian Games Market Growth
Malaysian
Malaysia’s games industry isn’t quite on the same level as Indonesian and Turkish, but it’s clear the government is gearing up to accelerate their games market growth. Malaysia’s games industry is expected to generate $649 Million USD in 2024, half of Indonesia’s industry expectations.
The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation, also known as MDEC, will be facilitating greater investments and growing awareness of Malaysia’s games industry throughout 2024, with investments already jumping from $120 Million in 2022 to $350 Million in 2023.
Malaysia still benefits greatly from being located in Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia is the fastest growing geographical region for games, as well as the region with the highest share of organic game installs at 48%. Malaysia now has over 20 million gamers, 6 million more than Italy, but is still somewhat dwarfed by its Southeast Asian neighbors, namely Indonesia.
So, while Malaysia’s games industry is set to have a strong year with impressive growth, the market still isn’t quite at the point where Malaysian localization has to be considered by publishers. But, if projections hold true for 2024, Malaysian is likely to be an important language for localization in the near future.
Malaysian Games Market Growth
2024 is set to be a landmark year for Turkish and Indonesian, with Malaysian likely following behind over the next few years. While localization is an important part of publishing games, it’s often not given enough consideration and research when choosing what languages to include. Staying on top of the latest changes in localization will help your game grow its player-base and revenue. Don’t let your game get left behind.