Francesc G. Parisi has enjoyed video games since he was little, when “there were only four games told in Catalan.” Already older and concerned about the state of the language, he founded the Ce Trencada Project in 2021. Together with other proofreaders, programmers and dubbers, this non-profit association has translated forty commercial video games into Catalan. An altruistic gesture that they believe is necessary to “be able to live fully in this language.”

Although it is estimated that about half of the population of Catalonia plays video games, only 5.3% claim to play in the Catalan language, according to the latest data from the Cultural Participation Survey of Catalonia. For people in this sector, it is not an extraordinary fact: “If we compare with the immensity of games that are available, you realize that there are not many in Catalan,” comments Roger Baldomà, member of the video game commission at Plataforma per la. Language

Currently there are 159 titles available in the Catalan language, according to VDJOC, the database of the Linguistic Policy Secretariat. A number that contrasts with the great total supply of video games: in 2022 alone, nearly 11,000 games were published on Steam, the most important digital store for computer video games, as indicated by the SteamSpy analysis program.

Francesc Felipe, creator of Gaming.cat, the largest digital community of Catalan-speaking players, considers that “in relatively few years the availability of video games in Catalan has increased.” However, he also highlights that in certain genres and, above all, in large-format productions, it is impossible to find the language: “There are a series of fields in which Catalan is totally virgin.”

Most of the works that include the language are small, independent video games developed by local studios. On the contrary, there are almost no blockbusters that incorporate it. Eduard López, the current director of IOI Barcelona, ​​collaborated on one of the few exceptions when he worked at Ubisoft: The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn (2011).

“I would say that it was the first console video game in Catalan in history,” says López. It was a game with a “not very large number of words” that could fit with the local market “who had read the comics in Catalan”, so the company agreed to translate it. However, he emphasizes that it was something very unusual. “When we talk about triple-A games, we’re talking about millions of lines of dialogue and hundreds of hours of voice.” “Translating or dubbing a game with these characteristics is like doing it for 100 Disney movies.”

Under these circumstances, the inclusion of Catalan in commercial video games is a gamble that does not entail economic benefits. “For monetary matters, Catalan is a language that never pays off,” explains David Jaumendreu, director of the Barcelona studio Undercoders. “You won’t sell more copies because you incorporate Catalan,” he adds.

Although the inclusion of the language, as Jaumendreu indicates, does not provide “any type of return”, Undercoders have always tried to translate their games into Catalan. “We find it natural that if we are Catalan and speak Catalan, our game can be enjoyed in this language,” he explains.

It’s something they’ve also done at Herobeat Studios, the creators of the BAFTA-winning video game Endling – Extinction is Forever (2022). “In our case, we did the translation into Catalan for the love of art and because we considered that, being a Catalan studio, it made no sense not to release it in that language,” comments its director, Javier Remello.

It is a trend that has been gaining strength over the years. According to the White Book of the Catalan video game industry 2022, 53% of the studios located in Catalonia have used Catalan in their video games. A statistic that in 2016 was 43%. “More or less in the last five years is when we have really seen a clearer increase in productions in Catalan,” explains Francesc Felipe.

Even with this, the consumption of video games in the Catalan language “continues to be really marginal.” According to Felipe, “we have a pending account as a society: if we want products in Catalan we also have to demonstrate it.” An opinion shared by some of the developers interviewed. “I think the change doesn’t have to be so much on the part of the studios, but on the part of the consumers,” says Ramello. Something that López also agrees with: “If there is public interest for video games to be translated into Catalan, a normalization effect could be created.”

Apart from the translations of the Ce Trencada Project, in recent years different initiatives have emerged to promote the language in the sector. Plataforma per la Llengua, together with Gaming.cat and the specialized media Lúdica, have created an awards gala for video games in Catalan that is held at SAGA, a fair where only studios that offer the language in their productions participate. Likewise, Plataforma per la Llengua has launched a campaign, which as of this publication has collected 17,000 signatures, for consoles to introduce the language on their platforms.

“We believe that the presence of Catalan in video games is key to the future of the language,” explains Baldomà. “It is one of the things that young people are most entertained with; therefore, if Catalan is not in video games, young people and adolescents will not interact in Catalan when they talk about them,” he adds.

The Catalan video game industry generated 660 million euros in 2021, accounting for almost half of Spain’s turnover. Furthermore, Catalonia brings together 48% of the employment of the entire State and a total of 196 companies dedicated to the sector. “A single preposition can change everything,” explains Ricard Soler, member of Projecte Ce trencada: “One thing is the Catalan video game and another is the video game in Catalan.”