From the dawn of video games until the 1980s, localization was a secondary issue. The American market was dominated by Atari, and games were rarely exported or adapted for other countries.

However, some American computer games, when played on globally compatible systems, found their way to countries such as Japan, where sometimes only the manuals were translated, but the in-game text remained unchanged. These adaptations could be seen as the first steps in the localization process. However, in most cases, this work was done by independent translators.

Arcade machines: simple mechanics, On-screen text was not a major component of the game, It requires little linguistic interactivity with the user.

Before the 1980s, games were exported as is, especially to the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan.

Covers and manuals appeared, creating export problems associated with the language.

During the crisis of the 80s, Atari lost strength in the North American market and Nintendo and Sega took over. Thus, Japanese companies became the reference for the video game industry in the United States.

Nintendo positions its NES console, which was the most popular and successful of the 8-bit era.

The NES console was exported to the Japanese market, which led to video game adaptations to new markets and thus the localization industry was activated.

Home consoles changed the way video games were designed and played. They fostered new ways to continue playing.

New genres of video games were created with more extensive and complex content, more advanced characters, more developed menus and elements, and more text.

It was not enough to translate the texts: the need arose to localize the games. Keeping gameplay (interaction) and player content intact, regardless of its origin.

Miguel Bernal Merino

"While the inner workings of a video game remain the same from one release to the next, the longevity and acceptance of the product can be severely affected by poor translation, ambiguous instructions, unintuitive menus, low-quality dubbing, and other issues related to poor localization".

The localization industry began with the translation of box art and manuals, which led to greater acceptance and more sales.

From the 1990s onwards, there was talk of another level of localisation, where companies began to translate and adapt menus, interfaces and subtitles in some video games.