What is a TMS?
A translation management system (TMS) is a valuable tool every localization team can leverage into their company infrastructure. Depending on your company’s needs and preferences, there are several options to choose from that combine the power of computer-assisted translation (CAT) tools and project management tools to ensure all key systems are working cohesively. Specifically in the realm of game localization, managing a company like this involves a strong collaboration between all the departments in the game making process and the valuable community that helps support it. In order to do that, what TMS would be suitable for this purpose? Together with my team of localization partners, we collectively researched 5 different TMS options to find the best fit for a mid-size gaming company.
Team Member
Camile de Castro
Brian Hsieh
Aaron Long
Anne Tran
Alice Zhang
TMS
Phrase
Lokalise
Crowdin
Smartling
XTM
Step 1: Identify Stakeholder and Core Business Requirements
To determine the most suitable Translation Management System (TMS) for a gaming company, it’s important to consider the distinct needs of key stakeholders and align them with core business functions. Each stakeholder group within the company has their unique requirements essential for effective localization to happen. Let’s look into these requirements.
Key Stakeholder Requirements
- Project managers (Workflow customizations): Require workflow customizations to streamline project management processes that can incorporate the gaming development lifecycle.
- Linguists (CAT tool with in-context review): Require CAT tool equipped with in-context review capabilities to ensure linguistic accuracy and contextual coherence in translations.
- Game designers (Pseudo localization features): Require pseudo localization features to simulate in-game text variations and test linguistic layouts.
- Game writers (Transcreation preferably with AI capabilities): Require transcreation capabilities augmented by AI technologies to provide storytelling elements that are culturally sensitive.
- Engineers (Game-specific software integrations): Require game-specific software integrations within the TMS framework to facilitate seamless localization implementation.
- Sales (Automated quoting & billing services): Require automated quoting and billing services embedded within the TMS to expedite localization project estimations and financial transactions.
- Marketing (DTP compatibilities): Require DTP integrations to maintain visual aesthetics and layouts in localized marketing materials.
- Legal (Compliance management): Require compliance management tools integrated into the TMS to ensure game content adheres to various regional restrictions.
- Community hubs (Community engagement tools): Require community engagement tools that provide input from game users for real-time insights and direct feedback.
- Customer support (Support tickets and query management integrations): Require integration with support ticket and query management tools to address player inquiries and resolve localization-related issues.
- QA/Game testers (Bug tracking and resolving localization issues): Require bug tracking systems to be integrated to resolve localization issues and improve quality of gaming content.
Core Business Requirements
- Scalability: Ability to grow to support more languages?
- Cost: Transparency of cost and fair for a mid-size team?
- Usability: Easy to use and easy to teach?
- File Formats: Can it support design, text, and game-specific files?
- Workflow Management: Contain progress-tracking features and customizable options?
- Cloud Capabilities: Is it a Cloud-based product?
- Integrations: Repositories, game engines integrations?
Step 2: Initial Round of Evaluations
For this part of the evaluation process, each team member chose one TMS that was a potential candidate to start with. After conducting our individual research, we gathered and shared our respective evaluations based on a scoreboard to narrow down 2 options based on the highest 2 scores.
Score Explanation: (1 Red – Critical), (2 Yellow – Impactful), (3 Green – Satisfactory)
| Business Requirement | XTM | Smartling | Lokalise | Phrase | Crowdin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scalability | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| Cost | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Usability | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| File Formats | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| Workflow Management | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Cloud Capabilities | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Integrations | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| AI | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| Result | 20 | 18 | 17 | 22 | 21 |
| FAIL | FAIL | FAIL | PASS | PASS |
Step 3: Final Round of Evaluations
After narrowing down our options between Crowdin and Phrase, we then conducted further research based on the core business requirements we listed to provide an in-depth analysis of the 2 TMSs.
Here are our findings.
Weighted Factor: 1 – Low importance, 2 – Medium importance, 3 – High Importance
Multiplier = Weighted Factor / 16
Applied Score: 1 – Okay, 2 – Adequate, 3 – Excellent
Weighted Score = Applied Score x Multiplier
| Business Requirement | Weighted Factor | Multiplier | Applied Score Phrase | Applied Score Crowdin | Weighted Score Phrase | Weighted Score Crowdin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scalability | 1 | 0.0625 | 2 | 2 | 0.1250 | 0.1250 |
| Cost | 3 | 0.1875 | 1 | 2 | 0.1875 | 0.3750 |
| Usability | 3 | 0.1875 | 3 | 3 | 0.5625 | 0.5625 |
| File Formats | 1 | 0.0625 | 2 | 3 | 0.1250 | 0.1875 |
| Workflow Mangement | 2 | 0.1250 | 2 | 3 | 0.2500 | 0.3750 |
| Cloud Capabilities | 2 | 0.1250 | 2 | 2 | 0.2500 | 0.2500 |
| Integrations | 2 | 0.1875 | 2 | 3 | 0.3750 | 0.5625 |
| AI | 1 | 0.0625 | 2 | 1 | 0.1250 | 0.0625 |
| Total Weighted Score | 2.0 | 2.5 |
Step 4: Choosing the Final TMS
In conclusion, CrowdIn’s comprehensive set of features, including integrations with game engines, support for numerous file formats, flexible workflow management, and cost-effective pricing models, position it as the ideal TMS solution for a gaming company. With CrowdIn as our trusted localization partner, we are confident in our ability to deliver immersive gaming experiences to players worldwide while staying agile and cost-efficient in our localization efforts.
You can watch the team’s full-detailed evaluation process and how we came to decide on Crowdin as our final choice in the video below.