Hinglish - Localizing for the Indian Market

For the Indian video game audience, watching a favourite character interact in Hindi can be a thrilling experience. However, a relatively new dialect has also emerged as a prominent language in the Indian video games community. Below, we look at the rise of Hinglish, a combination of Hindi and English, and its growing importance to the video game market in India.

Hinglish in Video Games

Since its first recorded use in the 1960s, Hinglish has steadily grown in popularity, first as a conversational tool then in written form. Today, Hinglish is widely used on social networking platforms to connect English and Hindi-speaking communities in India. Game developers have recognised this emergence by offering players the opportunity to interact with each other in Hinglish across various gaming communities as well as in-game.

Why Hinglish?

In India, English proficiency is mostly dictated by your area of residence, background and the nature of your work. In video games, Hinglish has acted as a common language, bridging the gap between 
Hindi and English. There are many gamers in India for whom a fast-paced English-speaking experience would be difficult to follow. Being able interact in real-time with a game in Hinglish has therefore opened the door to a whole new market of players.

Advantages of ‘Hinglish’

Hinglish, as a hybrid language, not only connects different communities, it also ensures gamers are losing none of that immersive quality that makes gameplay so thrilling. Players can interact with each other and learn the game at their own pace in a language they understand. This is the biggest advantage of Hinglish entering the Indian video games market.

Today, many international brands are using Hinglish to advertise in India. This not only helps with a brand's reach, it also helps future proof communication methods across the Indian market. Video games are at the forefront of this. With an estimated 350 million Hinglish speakers across the country and a booming video game sector to match, the opportunity for growth is obvious. Moreover, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry has seen a significant upsurge in turnover in India, thanks in large part to online communities being able to interact.

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