The Game Studies Watchlist newsletter, curated by Prof. Dr Rudolf Inderst, is published weekly on GamesMarkt. This week's topics include the transformation of localisation workflows by AI and a heuristic for analysing games as historical sources.
AHOI there, game studies operators!
This week, for once, I'm not recommending a classic essay, but an interview. Video games travel globally, but adapting them for new cultures is more than translation. Let's find out then why "authentic" localization is elusive and how AI is transforming localization workflows and disrupting creative jobs in the gaming industry.
How do video game localization, intercultural communication, and decolonizing game design reshape the games we play—and who feels welcome playing them? In this episode of the Storytelling Movement Podcast, host Ryan McPherson sits down with Dr. Marina Fontolan, game studies scholar and associate professor of instruction at UTSA, to unpack the complex world behind your favorite titles.
For game researches this is an interesting topic since localization sits at the intersection of culture, technology, labor, and power. It shapes how games are interpreted across cultural contexts, reveals whose voices and norms are prioritized as “authentic,” and exposes how technological shifts such as AI are transforming creative labor, authorship, and precarity within the global games industry.
Digital games are key media for the circulation of historical knowledge and they not only shape how millions imagine the past but actively transform popular history through their unique medial affordances. I came a German article from Milan Weber (University of Siegen, Germany) proposing a heuristic for analyzing games as historical sources, focusing on narration, audiovisual design, and formal structure - whose interaction constitutes games’ distinctive mode of engaging with history.
Gossip time! I recently read an article that mentioned a total of 51 video game adaptations are getting ready to “delight” us. Of course, not all of them will see the light of day, but I'm naturally interested in which ones you guys are waiting for (or NOT waiting for). I took a long look at this Gamespot list and picked my favorite (I really hope for a little chamber play of b-horror here):
One of the few adaptations on this list not stuck in development hell, production on indie horror game The Mortuary Assistant recently kicked off. Jeremiah Kipp will direct the movie--which stars Gossip Girl and Arrow star Willa Holland in the lead--and the filmmaker envisions this project as a companion piece to the game that will flesh out its lore further.
I spoke to Chaim Gingold about his book Building SimCity: How to Put the World in a Machine (MIT Press) on my podcast GameStudies. If all goes well, the Game Studies podcast channel will also get some reinforcement on the host side starting in 2026. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
Better protect your neck! As part of their project to preserve the history of Sega Channel, the Video Game History Foundation has recovered over 100 new Sega Channel ROMs, including the legendary lost game Garfield: Caught in the Act - The Lost Levels.
Until then, we’ll briefly disappear into the festive limbo between deadlines, cookies, and questionable year-end reflections. But don’t get too comfortable: we’ll be back after Christmas and before New Year’s, just in time to pretend 2026 hasn’t started yet. Until then, take care, enjoy the pause, and don’t forget to log back in.🎄🎄🎄
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Cheers and stay healthy,
Rudolf
