مسعود نایب صادقی

With the rise of the video game industry as one of the major media industries in the past few decades, the importance of global markets has increased within this sector. The primary means of accessing this global market is localization. The present study aims to review and analyze the trends of this practice over the past twenty-two years in Iran, while assessing the accuracy of what the localizers intended to achieve through their work. This study employs a combination of historical analysis and case studies to gain insight into localized games in Iran. The results reveal that the trend of localization in Iran has undergone a significant change, which is contrary to what might have been expected. Specifically, the study shows that the trend has shifted from a dubbing-oriented approach to a subtitle-oriented one. The second phase of the study also presents examples of untranslated or undubbed assets in the localized version of a selection of popular video games, highlighting their varying significance on the gaming experience of players.