Early Access title, English-only, live on PC and console. A multi-region marketing campaign launched for the December holiday period, including Japan, before localization had been planned.
CTR and conversion in Japan were extremely low, while a high six-figure marketing spend had already been committed and could not be pulled back.
Production had roughly two weeks to deliver a Japanese-localized PlayStation build before the holiday certification window closed.
The game was not localization-ready:
Most strings were hard-coded
Subtitle support was incomplete
Platform (TRC) requirements had not been validated
Under normal conditions, this would require multiple months.
Focused on parallel execution and strict scope prioritization.
Key decisions:
AI-assisted translation to generate a fast initial pass, with human review on critical strings
Voiceover for onboarding instead of subtitles, ensuring player comprehension without introducing risky UI changes
Daily cross-functional syncs across engineering, QA, audio, and production to unblock issues in real time
Dedicated QA focus on localization and TRC compliance
Ran certification preparation in parallel with development
First submission failed due to issues introduced by the compressed timeline
Engaged Sony directly and secured a conditional approval path (rapid fixes + follow-up certification cycle)
Delivered a release within the holiday window
Japanese localization shipped within two weeks
More than 300% improvement in CTR and engagement in Japan vs. English-only version
Marketing investment recovered within the campaign window
Established a baseline for future localization readiness
Speed under pressure requires decisive scope control.
The outcome came from prioritizing what mattered for player understanding and certification, rather than attempting full feature completeness.Â
Direct engagement with platform holders enabled a workable path forward where a standard process would have resulted in delay.