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When Risqué Translation Practices Lead to a National Video Game Phenomenon — The Strange Case of Palworld’s Localization Success in Brazil

February 22, 2024

WARNING: This article contains foul language that may disrupt LinkedIn’s sanitized environment.

This year saw the Early Access launch of Palworld — an action-adventure monster-catching game that has been labeled as “Pokémon with guns”. In less than one month, Palworld sold nearly 20 million digital copies across all platforms and became the second-highest-played game on Steam by concurrent users, with 2 million players on January 24.

Beyond the game’s worldwide success, one thing made it particularly popular among Brazilian players: the non-localization of its animal-like creatures called “Pals.” As it happens, Pal sounds and reads closely to the Portuguese noun pau, a wooden stick. Although not a slur in itself, the word has acquired sexual connotations in a similar fashion to “cock” and tends to be avoided as a vulgarism.

The Brazilian community (including the translators, apparently) embraced the double entendre. X (formerly Twitter) and livestreams were taken by storm as players laughed at the game’s puns and came up with dozens of their own. News websites joined in the fun, using wordplay back-to-back in their articles and collecting the most viral social media posts out there.

"If you’re not familiar with it, ‘Palworld’ is a survival game mashing up ‘Pokémon’, ‘Minecraft’, and ‘Fortnite’ with heavy guns and double-entendre jokes — the latter being a Brazilian Portuguese localization exclusive.”
- Giz Brasil, a tech, science, and culture news website.

Original article here.

Journalists and bloggers attributed the term’s popularity to the “humor de 5ª série” (6th-grade school humor) that all Brazilians allegedly have well into their adult lives. And what does that mean? Basically, exploring rude words and joking at the merest sexual innuendo. Think South Park or Beavis and Butt-Head.

While Brazilian players were extremely vocal in favor of the term’s non-localization, to what extent was this the best choice? Or better yet, to what extent is it aligned with the game’s creative vision?

Localization 101 — Flagging Accidentally Inappropriate Words

Translation and localization courses typically include one particular category among their Localization Quality Assurance lessons — culturally inappropriate content should be flagged to the product or marketing teams. Take this article by BLEND Localization as an example. Or this one by INLINGO –– Gamedev Outsourcing Studio. And another one by Gridly. You get the gist.

In fact, terminology adaptation is a common practice for cases where the source text has problematic connotations in a target locale.

The Portuguese version of Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones changed the names of the characters Count Dooku (“from the b*tthole”) and Sifo-Dyas (“f*cked himself”) to Count Dookan and Zaifo Vias, respectively. Disney Pixar’s animation film title Coco (“poop”) was also adapted to Viva: A Vida é uma Festa for Brazilian audiences. Some software giants also carefully select their product’s names as part of a globalization strategy, making sure they are sound, at least in the most critical target markets.

The obviously ambiguous term Pal, however, remained unchanged for the Portuguese localization, even though it’s a perfectly neutral term in all other languages. That’s not a problem in itself, of course. Great localization isn’t done word for word. When a joke doesn’t work in a language, you change it to one that does. When you can’t add humor in a particular context, you add it elsewhere.

The non-localization of Palworld’s central term could only be justified by the presence of sexual motifs in the game. But that’s not the case. Although Palworld has been called out for its reliance on shock humor, sex jokes aren’t among its themes.

And that begs the question:

Why was that choice so popular among Brazilian players, even when it falls outside the game’s original creative vision?

Palworld’s Localization Success in Brazil — The How’s and Why’s

I first learned of Pal’s non-localization shenanigans in a WhatsApp group of long-standing gamer friends. We had a laugh about an ambiguous dialogue line, and I quickly dismissed it as a linguistic oversight. As the double entendre gained digital attention in Brazil, one pattern emerged. The vast majority of X posts and livestream reactions were published by male players. And that WhatsApp group I just mentioned? You guessed it. 100% male.

And here’s where the answer may lie. Palworld isn’t a typical child-friendly, monster-catching game. It’s a game that doesn’t shy away from political incorrectness. For example, it’s been criticized for making illegal hunting and animal cruelty jokes. Palworld is to Pokémon what the Rolling Stones were to the Beatles — the baddies.

If those themes are more appealing to masculine audiences, that might explain why the (not so) accidental sex jokes resonated with South American players. In other words, the target audiences for sex jokes and Palworld’s themes proved to be a perfect match in Brazil.

Leaving risqué terms unchanged isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution, naturally. Media coverage is all well and good, but not every game studio wants their product associated with “6th-grade school humor”. Besides, a stunt like this might come at a price, as not every niche will appreciate these jokes. Developers and marketers should closely examine each target market and weigh the potential to backfire. It’s up to the localization department to assist them as cultural advisors, setting aside their own preferences in favor of those from each product’s customer profile in a locale

The Conclusion? Time Will Tell

Palworld’s Portuguese version challenges conventional wisdom and shows that localization isn’t an exact science. Whether a happy accident or a deliberate choice, Palworld took a risk and hit the popularity jackpot. One month later, Brazilian gamers are still squeezing the last drop of Pal’s double-entendre fun. However, it remains to be seen if the pervasive puns will become dull, too distracting, or an undisputable selling point for Palworld in the long run.