Warzone 2 under fire for Arabic translation mistakes “a three year old” could see

Call of Duty: Warzone 2 appears to have some big translation errors in the game that have been noticed by frustrated players who think this is “embarrassing to game development as a whole.”

Al Mazrah City, the fictional location of the new Warzone 2 map, is believed to be based on the real-life country Iraq, and as such, the game’s design and presentation reflect this.

Only, instead of fans jumping on common issues such as the new Gulag changes as well as other potential flaws, there has also been criticism aimed at the game’s translation of Arabic language throughout the title.

Warzone 2 translation issues are “frustrating”

A CoD player has revealed that Warzone 2’s use of Arabic across the new Al Mazrah City map isn’t as comprehensive and accurate as it should be with the user picking up on multiple mistakes and criticizing Infinity Ward for overlooking this issue.

Hi, @InfinityWard, why don't you for once just hire some Arabs & locals to ensure the places you seem to insist you gotta blow us up in would at least pass the critical gaze of say, a 3 year old. This is embarrassing to game development as a whole.https://t.co/IP66Ocs16R

— Rami Ismail / رامي (@tha_rami) September 18, 2022

“I made a thread a while ago about how Modern Warfare’s reboot frustratingly had non-Arabic speaking actors performing Arabic-speaking roles. I had some hope that Infinity Ward would have addressed this for this new outing, but alas based on the Warzone 2 footage released yesterday it seems like their handling of the Middle East is still as comically inept as it was in 2019” Resetera user Dance Inferno said.

They noticed that in Al Mazrah City, a place supposedly based on Iraq, “pretty much all the billboards are in English” and also that “it would be downright bizarre to have no Arabic billboards whatsoever in the main downtown area.”

The reason they believe this to be the case is: “That would require IW to have Arabic-speaking devs on their payroll, which I suppose is too much to ask.”

It goes on with the user pointing out that the Arabic for an electronics store quite simply translates to: “Air Conditioner.” There’s also a complete breakdown of an establishment in the Taraq Village POI where the Arabic translates to “Halal Hookah Bar,” which the user describes as a “remarkable achievement in cultural misrepresentation.”

They eventually conclude by saying: “TL;DR: Infinity Ward’s treatment of the Arabic language shows lack of care, research, and awareness about local language and customs, and is disappointing for people who are familiar with the region.”

This is clearly an issue for Arabic CoD players and you wonder if it will continue to be ignored moving forward.