The video game industry today has evolved, adapted and progressed dramatically, involving profoundly new and improved technologies, increasing communication (online and through the social aspect of gaming) and entertainment, since its appearance in the 1920s with the first pinball machines, continuing later in the 1960s, with the first video game called "Space War" produced in 1962 by Steve Russell (Merino 2006) and growing into a global multi-billion dollar blockbuster game. phenomenon that it is today. It can be argued that this popularity and success was only brought about by the processes of localization and convergence. These notions are believed to be "an integral part of the development cycle" (Merino 2006), providing the video game industry with important factors and characteristics that have influenced its development into the large, prosperous and lucrative industry that it has become in contemporary society. Video games can be broadly described as "electronic games, computer games and video games" (Encyclopoedia Brittanica 2001), ranging from pinball machines to handheld game consoles, used for entertainment and entertainment purposes. I will discuss the importance of the two concepts, convergence and localization, and express the importance and impact they have on us in helping us understand the global video game industry today. Convergence is the “integration of the entertainment industry” (Whiteman 2010), as well as the assimilation and incorporation of communication, “computing and media technologies, and thus the integration of businesses, markets and social interactions associated with them” (Hartley 2002: 39). This means that technology has evolved so much that products have become...... middle of paper ...... Studies, Volume 7 (1): 33-43Hartley, J. (2002). Communication, culture and media studies, the key concepts. New York: Routledge. Merino, MB (2006) “On the Translation of Video Games”, The Journal of Specialized Translation, number 6, http://www.jostrans.org/issue06/art_bernal.php [accessed 11/03 / 2010]Mongiron, C. and O'Hagan, M. (2006) “Game localization: unleashing the imagination with “restricted” translation. The Journal of Specialized Translation 6: 10-21Sony (2010) http://www.scei.co.jp/corporate/data/bizdatajpn_e.html [Accessed 03/13/2010] Thayer, A., Kolko, BE ( 2004). “Digital Game Localization: The Blending Process for the Global Games Market.” » Technical Communication 51 (4): 477-488. Whiteman, N (2010) “Video games and gaming cultures in a global context”, Media in an international context, University of Leicester