The strategic importance of product adaptation in the video game industry. A case study based on Nordic video game companies

Sammanfattning

This study examines how video game firms strategically approach and implement product adaptation within international markets. The increasingly globalized and digitally interconnected video game industry operates across highly diverse cultural, regulatory, and institutional environments. Unlike traditional entertainment products, video games are interactive and continuously evolving through live-service systems, community feedback, and ongoing updates, creating strategic challenges regarding how firms balance global standardization with regional adaptation. Using a qualitative and abductive research approach, the study is based on ten semi-structured interviews with professionals connected to Nordic video game companies and the broader international industry. The findings, analysed through the integration-responsiveness framework and localization theory, show that firms rarely redesign entire games for specific markets. Instead, adaptation primarily occurs through localization, monetization adjustments, regional marketing strategies, platform adaptation, and selective content modifications while maintaining globally standardized core products. The study further demonstrates that localization increasingly functions as an integrated strategic capability rather than solely as a post-production translation activity. Regulatory and institutional adaptation related to censorship, platform requirements, data protection, age-classification systems, and monetization policies also emerged as increasingly important. Overall, product adaptation is best understood as a dynamic balancing process between global integration and selective local responsiveness.