Technology

Popular video game Among US gets Irish-language version

Move greeted as ‘cultural victory for Irish community’

The initiative was prompted by a 2020 tweet sent by Irish speaker Úna-Minh Kavanagh asking for the game to be made available in Irish

Kiani Hildebrandt
Thu Jul 8 2021 - 16:45

Popular video game Among Us has been translated into the Irish language .

Creators Innersloth worked with a small group of Irish-speaking gamers to translate the social deduction game.

The initiative was prompted by a 2020 tweet sent by Irish speaker Úna-Minh Kavanagh asking for the game to be made available in Irish.

Callum Underwood, on behalf of Innersloth, contacted Ms Kavanagh and the process to translate Among Us got under way. Mr Underwood is a director of Robot Teddy which represents Innersloth in businesses and production.

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Ms Kavanagh worked with fellow Irish language enthusiasts Brian C Mac Giolla Mhuire, Cormac Cinnsealach and Mike Drinkwater to translate the game.

For the first five months of 2021 the team of Irish speakers – from Ireland, Canada and New Zealand – combined their love of languages, culture and, of course, video games to bring about this version of Among Us.

“We are so grateful to Robot Teddy and Innersloth for giving us this opportunity to showcase Irish to the world,” Ms Kavanagh said.

Victoria Tran, community director for Among Us, said: “Working with the Irish translators was great – they were professional and very enthusiastic about the job. We’re so excited that, with their help, we can release an Irish version of Among Us to the world.”

Right direction

“Born and raised as I was in Canada, when I first started to learn Irish, I found it difficult as there were few resources available. This lack led me to translate games into Irish to practice, with the benefit that, once translated, I could then play them in Irish,” Mr Mac Giolla Mhuire said.

“Games have long been a hobby of mine and I think it is an excellent route to encourage the use of the language – it’d be great to have a variety of games available, but to have a game as accessible and widely played as Among Us available as Gaeilge, now that’s what I’d call a step in the right direction,” he said.

“Irish is a language with a large and growing minority, but it’s ignored in current affairs, especially in the case of technology and modern media. The translation of Among Us is the first significant translation ever made in Irish for a very popular game. It is a cultural victory for the Irish community, ” Mr Cinnsealach said.

Commenting on the collaboration, Mr Underwood said: “I can definitely see us working together in the future, the entire process went very smoothly. I think what Úna-Minh and her colleagues are doing for the Irish language is incredible.”

Among Us was first released in 2018 but became extremely popular during the Covid-19 lockdown all over the world. Among Us can be played on the iPhone but also the Nintendo Switch, Xbox for PCs, and soon on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.

Other games that have Irish translations include Minecraft and PlayerUnknown’s Battleground.

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