How to Translate Your Steam Store Page Before Launch

Why your Steam page needs a different translation workflow

A Steam store page is not just another block of game text. It has a job: help players understand what the game is, why it is worth their time, and whether it matches what they like to play.

That means the translation needs to preserve three things:

• the genre promise

• the tone of the game

• the practical selling points players scan before wishlisting

A literal translation can be grammatically correct and still fail at all three. This is especially common in short descriptions, taglines, and feature bullets, where the copy has to carry a lot of meaning in a small space.

Start with the two Steam fields that matter most

For a first localization pass, focus on these fields:

• Short Description

• About This Game

The Short Description is usually the highest-leverage field. It appears in places where players are quickly scanning, so it needs to be clear, compact, and genre-specific.

The About This Game section gives you more room. It should explain the core loop, the setting, and the reasons to care. If you already use BBCode headings, lists, or emphasis, preserve that structure during translation.

Prepare your source copy before translating

Before sending copy into any translation tool, clean the English version first.

Good source copy is specific: Build a cozy railway network through haunted towns, hire conductors, and keep restless ghosts happy.

Weak source copy is vague: Experience an amazing adventure with many features and unique gameplay.

The second example is harder to translate well because it does not say what the player actually does. Translation tools can improve language, but they cannot reliably invent the missing product truth.

Keep Steam BBCode intact

Steam store pages often use BBCode such as [h2], [list], and [*]. Do not translate the tags themselves. Translate the visible text inside them.

Good: [h2]主要特色[/h2] keeps the tag and translates the heading text.

Bad: [标题2]主要特色[/标题2] changes the tag and can break Steam rendering.

Broken BBCode creates cleanup work and can make the Steam page render incorrectly.

Translate meaning, not just words

Store copy often uses compact phrases that do not map cleanly across languages. A phrase like “a cozy strategy game about haunted trains” needs to keep the player-facing meaning: cozy mood, strategy gameplay, and haunted train theme.

When reviewing translated copy, ask:

• Does the genre still feel obvious?

• Does the tone match the game?

• Would a native speaker understand the hook quickly?

• Are feature bullets concrete?

• Did any English idiom get translated too literally?

Choose launch languages based on your audience

A common first set for Steam pages is:

• Simplified Chinese

• Japanese

• German

• Spanish

• Brazilian Portuguese

• French

• Korean

That does not mean every game needs the same list. A text-heavy narrative game, a strategy game, and a cozy sim may each have different market priorities.

If you are unsure, start with the languages where Steam players are likely to search, wishlist, and understand the genre promise. Store page localization is relatively small compared with full in-game localization, so it is a good place to test demand.

Review the translated page like a player

After translation, do not review the copy line by line only. Read it as a Steam visitor would.

Start with the Short Description. If it does not explain the game in one scan, rewrite it.

Then review About This Game:

• Are headings clear?

• Are bullets parallel and easy to scan?

• Is the strongest feature near the top?

• Does the copy avoid generic hype?

• Are names, mechanics, and genre terms consistent?

This matters because Steam visitors rarely read every word. They scan for fit.

Use AI for the first draft, then edit for the store

AI translation is useful for Steam page drafts because the content is short, structured, and easy to review. The risk is not that the draft is unusable. The risk is that it becomes bland.

A good workflow is:

• Paste the Short Description and About This Game copy.

• Generate drafts for your launch languages.

• Preserve BBCode and formatting.

• Review each language for clarity and tone.

• Copy the final text into Steamworks.

• Recheck the rendered Steam page.

If you later hire human reviewers, give them the AI draft and ask them to improve market fit, not translate from scratch.

Final checklist

Before publishing translated Steam copy, check:

• The Short Description is clear in each language.

• BBCode tags are unchanged.

• Game title and key terms are consistent.

• Feature bullets describe real gameplay.

• The tone still matches the game.

• No translated line sounds like generic app-store marketing.

• The rendered Steam page looks correct.

Steam page localization is small enough to do early and important enough to affect wishlists. Treat it as launch copy, not as a leftover translation task.