Our Founders Reflect: 10 Years with Lionbridge Games

The Early Years

In the early 2010s, a company by the name of Lionbridge began picking up steam in the Games industry. Though it had a growing body of game-related work spanning back as far as the mid-90s, the localization provider had yet to make any official plans to further invest in its gaming business. However, as a hole in the market began to become more apparent, that began to change.

“The games services outsourcing space as it exists today was not a thing 10 years ago. At the time, it was very fractured, and companies used different vendors for every type of service. But as the industry began to mature, these companies started seeking strategic partners who were committed to that space. They wanted games experts who had vision, scalability, and the financial capacity to invest in the long term. Vendors like that were almost nonexistent back then.” says Tugdual Delisle, Managing Director and founder of Lionbridge Games.

"Our customers started asking us if we wanted to play a leading role in that space. As we analyzed what we would need to succeed in doing that, we realized we had a great foundation already, and decided to jump in.”

Becoming Lionbridge Games

Delisle and colleague Matt Whiting began to develop a strategy to solidify Lionbridge's position in the gaming sphere. With this roadmap, the two submitted a proposal to officialize the games business within Lionbridge, and in 2013, Lionbridge Games was born.

“We, a group of early leaders and believers, always had a vision, but the company needed some convincing. However, it was clear to everyone that we had a unique opportunity to be a do something special. As an already global company, we had the global infrastructure, expertise, and partnerships to execute that vision. So, when we founded Lionbridge Games, it was really just a matter of materializing that vision — marrying assets and opportunity,” says Delisle.

Bigger, Better, Stronger

Since its founding, Lionbridge Games has grown exponentially. The company has completed five acquisitions, expanded to dozens of services, and established 17 global studios. Its dedicated staff has grown from 250 to over 3,000, supported by an additional 500,000+ testers and game enthusiasts around the world.

“Growth is a really an instrumental concept to me,” says Delisle. “This industry is rapidly growing, and it’s crucial that we grow with — and even ahead of — it. We place a lot of emphasis on continuing to develop our customer experience in the largest sense.”

Whiting weighs in. “Right now, we’re focused on enhancing our tools, global footprint, and capabilities so that our relationship with our customers and the industry continues to evolve. We’re digging deeper into their internal challenges and working closely with them to identify where we’re efficient and effective, and where there are opportunities to be more supportive.”

Looking to the Future

Though Lionbridge Games has demonstrated significant success in its first decade, it's looking to grow even further in its next. According to Delisle and Whiting, the company is anticipating opportunities in AI and more deeply embedded outsourcing.

“When it comes to the future, AI is top-of-mind for pretty much any company, and that includes us,” says Whiting. “However, being in a space where creativity and the human touch are vital to everything we do, we’re experimenting with AI in ways that expand on what we already do.”

Whiting explains that Lionbridge Games is working to enhance services from the outside in to develop more efficient processes, continuously improve quality, and increase workload capacity: “We want to enhance what we already have — not replace human work.”

“In addition to AI, we strongly believe demand for a few other secular trends like strategic outsourcing will continue to grow exponentially,” says Delisle. “In anticipation of that, we’re working on expanding our scope of service to become more closely integrated in the entire product lifecycle. We want to be there from product initiation, through development, and beyond release.”

“Instead of just handing off resources, we’re developing ways to build teams that comingle,” adds Whiting.

In the coming years, Lionbridge Games aims to become an innovative leader in the Games services outsourcing space and will remain dedicated to providing the best customer engagement in the industry.

As we cap off the celebration of this momentous milestone, Lionbridge Games and its teams thank you for being a part of this remarkable journey. We’re thrilled to see what the future holds and can’t wait to continue on this path of growth and success.