If you no longer know whether you are on an official Blizzard site or have landed among scammers, it is embarrassing – especially when it fails due to translation.
That translations of games or their websites sometimes have minor errors is an old story. But when entire sections are only automatically translated, fans feel cheated. Recently, an advertisement for Blizzard merchandise sparked a lot of criticism – as it is translated so poorly that it resembles the worst scam emails.
Where did this advertisement appear? On the official website of the Blizzard Gear Store – the place where one is supposed to indulge in their nerd tendencies and stock up on official Blizzard merchandise. The shop is operated by Legends but has been licensed by Blizzard.
When you visit the shop’s page, you are shortly welcomed by a blue banner that presumably wants you to sign up for the newsletter.
This was also noticed by Reddit user varkaa, who was quite upset about it:
What was once “Exclusions apply”, which should actually mean “Restrictions apply”, quickly became “Exclusions application”, and the grammar of the whole pop-up window resembles emails where a Nigerian prince wants to bequeath you his huge fortune, but unfortunately, he first needs a deposit of €1,000.
Especially funny: In true “Google Translate” fashion, they also translated the name of the shop here. “Blizzard Gear Store” simply became “Blizzard Gear Store”.
As of now (February 19, 2024, 08:00 AM), it still looks catastrophically bad.
Is this a new phenomenon? The decline in translation quality is, by the way, not an isolated case that can only be found in the Gear Store. In the various Blizzard games, the German localization has also been increasingly poor in recent months. Just a while ago we reported on some serious translation mistakes in Hearthstone, but there has also been increasing criticism in World of Warcraft. A new toy during the “Love is in the Air” event caused mockery and ridicule – because here “Date” in the sense of a “meeting” was simply translated as “Date”.
Have you noticed the faulty translations in Blizzard content as well?
