Use in Video Games
With recent video games placing a heavy emphasis on dialogue, many video games, when translated into another language for the foreign markets of North America, Japan and also PAL countries such as Europe and Australia, are also dubbed into the market's main languages. Because characters' mouth movements can be part of the game's code, lip sync is sometimes achieved by re-coding the mouth movements to match the dialogue in the new language, when translated to a new one. The Source engine automatically generates lip-sync data, making it easier for games to be localized. However, more often than not, the animations are only intended for the source language. To achieve synchronization, localized content is mostly recorded using techniques borrowed from movie dubbing (such as rythmo band) or, for instance when the images are not available, localized dubbing is done using only the source audios as a reference (sound-synch is one method, where the localized audios have to be recorded matching the length and internal pauses of the source content).
For the European version of a video game, the text of the game is available in various languages, and in many cases, the dialogue is dubbed into the respective languages as well.
The North American version of any game is always available in English with translated text and dubbed dialogue if necessary, as well as in other languages in some cases, especially if the North American version of the game contains the same data as the European version. Because the English dubbing voice casts of many Japanese games are perceived negatively, some Japanese games, such as those in the Sonic the Hedgehog, Dynasty Warriors and Soul Calibur series, include the original Japanese audio as well as an English translated dubbing version.
Read more about this topic: Dubbing (filmmaking)
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