Game Global. Advancing the global gaming industry.
Game Global Summit will be supported by high-profile professionals in the gaming industry from various geographical markets, with their combined expertise covering the gamut of both quality assurance and localization. Our current advisory board includes the following industry experts:
Michaela Bartelt-Krantz
Senior Localization Director
Electronic Arts
Michaela Bartelt-Krantz is the senior localization director at EA, heading up all worldwide localization functions including translation, recordings, vendor management, testing and engineering for the video game developer and publisher. Originally a translator by education, she looks back at 15 years of experience in the game localization industry. Her current focus is on shaping the strategic direction of localization in the company’s shift to online service models.
Thomas Barth
Global LQA Director
Keywords Studios
Thomas Barth (Tommy) has been working in games services for over 12 years and, like many young aspiring professionals, he started in the field of quality assurance (QA) to get a foot in the door of the industry. Since then, he leveled up from German QA tester to test lead, to project manager, to localization quality assurance (LQA) manager and most recently to LQA director at the global games services provider Keywords Studios. Throughout his career, Tommy had the chance to work with brilliant client partners from all sectors of the industry (developers, publishers and hardware manufacturers), provide and supervise testing for games of all genres and sizes, and on all platforms (from consoles to mobile, to the latest and greatest in virtual and augmented reality). He is passionate about the industry and believes that we are better together. Tommy also has a deep love for games and interactive entertainment and feels that all gamers around the world should have the same amazing and immersive experience, no matter which language they speak and play games in. Helping people succeed gives him energy and is one of his key drives as a professional.
Miguel Bernal-Merino believes passionately in great quality game localization and has been working nonstop to raise awareness of issues within the game and localization industries as well as academia and translation studies. He is convinced that research into these topics will improve quality, player satisfaction, turnover and return on investment. Miguel holds a doctorate in the localization of video games and is currently lecturing at the University of Roehampton in London. He is a sought-after speaker and prolific author on audiovisual translation and game localization. Miguel was instrumental in the creation of the Localization Summit within the Game Developers Conference and is one of the advisors. He is also a member of the International Game Developers Association and co-founder of the Game Localization Special Interest Group.
Chris Bewick
Regional FQA Director - Eurasia
Keywords Studios
Simone Crosignani
PR Manager
Jinglebell Localization
Simone Crosignani worked as a video game journalist for 15 years before moving to the public relations department of Sony Computer Entertainment in Italy. At Sony he handled enthusiast and online media, working on the launch campaigns of PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 3 and 100+ games. In 2006 Simone moved to Binari Sonori, a translation and audio production company, now part of Keywords Studios. In 2016 he joined Jinglebell Localization, the game localization spin-off of audio production powerhouse Jinglebell Communication. Simone has been a member of the International Game Developers Association localization group since day one and has been vice-chair of the group since 2013.
Nadine Martin
Senior Manager, Test Services
Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe
Nadine Martin has been working in the games industry and quality assurance (QA) for over 15 years. She joined Sony PlayStation’s internal QA team after completing a degree in business administration, starting initially as a localization tester for German and progressing to the management of the localization test team. In 2013 she became senior manager for test services which includes localization and functional testing. The team is responsible for testing game franchises such as Gran Turismo, The Last of Us, Uncharted, Horizon and God of War on all PlayStation platforms, including virtual reality and mobile. Nadine has presented extensively on QA and localization topics.
Fabio Minazzi
Text Localization Director
Keywords Studios
Fabio Minazzi has been into localization of interactive media since 1992, dealing with text, audio and video contents at Philips Interctive Media. After founding Binari Sonori, he dealt with software localization projects for Sun, Oracle, Peregrine and Adobe for a decade, using CAT and WISIWIG localization tools, DTP and workflow systems. This experience has proven useful in the roaring game localization industry, where, for the past ten years, Fabio has been in charge of game localization by Codemasters, Microsoft, Capcom, Square Enix and Bandai-Namco. An active member of Games Localization SIG and cofounder of the Games Localization Round Table, he is passionate about building bridges between cultures and helping people publish great content worldwide.
Seb Ohsan Berthelsen
Global Head, PMO
Keywords Studios
Seb Ohsan Berthelsen is officially an industry veteran, having spent 20 years in different roles in testing and localization services at Square Enix. He has recently joined Keywords Studios to build cross-service programs, supporting their global development and publishing clients. He remains an active and enthusiastic member of the game localization and testing community.
Miguel Sepúlveda
Global Localization Manager
King
Miguel Sepúlveda started his journey in the exciting localization world in 1995. He worked as a quality assurance (QA) specialist for Microsoft for a few projects such as Microsoft Project, Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office. Early in his career, Miguel worked on the vendor side, mainly working for Lionbridge as localization QA manager for different clients. In 2007 he had the opportunity to enter the gaming industry thanks to Electronic Arts where he was responsible for setting up the technical team to provide automated localization QA services to games such as FIFA, Harry Potter or Need for Speed among others. Then Miguel moved the buyer side giving him the opportunity to complete his vision of how the localization industry worked from both sides. In 2014 he joined the King Candy Crush world where his role is to lead the globalization efforts of a very talented team.
Vanessa Shallcross
Head of Localization
SEGA Europe
Having been in the games industry since 1996, Vanessa Shallcross is an experienced manager of computer game localization on a global basis. In her early years, she worked for Psygnosis, then moved to Sony Computer Entertainment and more recently Bigpoint GmbH based in Hamburg. Since November 2020 Vanessa was honored to be appointed as the Head of Localisation for Sega Europe overseeing all Localisation, Audio, LQA, and Engineering, part of the wider Operations Team, located in Brentford HQ. Her current focus is on getting to know her team and all the stakeholders across the Sega business, as well as planning the strategic direction of the Localisation Department.
Nate Stoddard
QA Discipline Principal
Epic Games
Nate Stoddard has been working in quality assurance (QA), testing, hardware development and game development for more than 12 years. In that time, he has worked on over 34 titles, on almost as many platforms. Nate recently moved from Boston to North Carolina to work at Epic Games and is now a senior QA lead on Fortnite.