Two decades of experience

If there’s one thing Chris Hoppenbrouwers is passionate about, it’s videogames. And if there’s two things he’s passionate about, it’s videogames and linguistics.

In the final year of his Oriental Languages and Communication (Japanese-English) studies in 2007, Chris was hired as an intern at the Dutch Localisation Department of Electronic Arts — located in Amsterdam at the time. As a lifelong gamer and a linguist at heart, he felt at home immediately, working on franchises like FIFA, The Sims, Need For Speed, Harry Potter and Boogie. (Remember Boogie? I do…)

In 2008, when EA moved their Localisation Department to sunny Madrid, Chris instead chose to move to rainy Frankfurt to work as a translator at a company that’s been near and dear to him since childhood: Nintendo of Europe.

There, he started out working on the Wii Virtual Console e-manuals, but was soon entrusted to be the Lead Translator for the fan-favourite Professor Layton series, with the occassional project in between — Nintendo Land being a personal highlight. (Remember Nintendo Land? Of course you do!)

When the German weather got to be too much, Chris returned to the (slightly less rainy) Netherlands in 2013, where he embarked on a daring new freelancing adventure under the banner of ABXY Translations — a homage to the iconic SNES controller.

In the years since, ABXY Translations has worked with agencies both big and small on every kind of videogame imaginable, from indie mobile games to major first-party blockbusters. Whether it’s small-budget breakout hits like Cult of the Lamb and Among Us, or AAA franchises like Assassin’s Creed, Marvel’s Spider-Man and The Legend of Zelda, Chris will continue to deliver accurate, creative translations on time and at competitive rates, as he has been doing for nearly twenty years.