Quebec prohibits English-only games. Que?

Quebec prohibits English-only games. Quoi?

BigRichez said:
http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/quebec-prohibits-english-only-games/1302236
Click to expand...

This is old, and does not affect sales (or games) in any ways. The law states that a french version needs to be available SOMEWHERE, not EVERYWHERE. So publishers just get around it by saying "oh it's available in french on our website or in france if you feel like importing". The only content that has to be french on every game is the game manual, which makes sense considering only around 30% of french canadians speak english on a level that's more than being able to answer to simple questions.

So yeah we Quebecers can still buy whatever the fuck we want, the government just whines like it does usually for like 2 or 3 days then everyone forgets about it.
 
Yay socialism... another example of why government should not be in control of the market.

A french version needs to be available SOMEWHERE, yes. But why do you think that America gets games before Europe? Because publishers make the game in English first, then make other localizations weeks or months afterwards. Doing something like this means that stores will not be able sell the game on launch, but instead have to wait for the European release (provided its on PS3, otherwise they are fucked because I don't think they use PAL/SECAM in Canada).
 
Jaxel said:
Yay socialism... another example of why government should not be in control of the market.

A french version needs to be available SOMEWHERE, yes. But why do you think that America gets games before Europe? Because publishers make the game in English first, then make other localizations weeks or months afterwards. Doing something like this means that stores will not be able sell the game on launch, but instead have to wait for the European release (provided its on PS3, otherwise they are fucked because I don't think they use PAL/SECAM in Canada).
Click to expand...

We use NTSC in Canada just like the rest of the Americas. This law has been around for a while and it doesn't affect ANYTHING, we get games a whole 1 day later than the US does, big whoop. The government overlooks it because they can't do anything about it since stores can simply stock themselves outside the province and would get games at the same rate the rest of the country does, and publishers get away with it because of the same reasons pretty much. The only companies that end up having to release games in multiple languages are those based in Quebec like Ubisoft Montreal. Everyone else just releases their games anyway, and they get stocked through warehouses outside Quebec which are free of this jurisdiction.

The only time I've seen any store be hit by this law was once, and it was over the cases of displayed games were the non-bilingual ones rather than the bilingual ones. He had to pay a fine and put his shit back in order, which he never did. He never got fined again either.
 
I live in Quebec, unlucky me. What happened is that they proposed a legally-binding agreement (not a law) 1 or 2 years ago to the ESRB stating that, if they're selling a game in French in France, then it has to be in French in Quebec too, even though it would be a stupid thing to agree to anyway. Although manuals and packaging have to be in French too, this isn't really a problem, and videogame companies and you and me aren't really affected by it. The article is probably misquoting. However, I'm not sure about the state of the agreement. Take SC4, the very point of this website, for example: there's French on the packaging, a French side in the manual, but no French language switch, French voice option (thank god) or French text in the game other than the name of Raphael and Amy's fighting style (probably in France the game's in French, but not here yay).
 
Problem is, Canada is bored. They really don't do anything... export syrup and Labbatt Blue? Wow... just let them make their silly game laws... that's what its all aboot.
 
Psylocide said:
Problem is, Canada is bored. They really don't do anything... export syrup and Labbatt Blue? Wow... just let them make their silly game laws... that's what its all aboot.
Click to expand...

I think they've got a fairly active logging industry as well? But they lose points for Curling, lol.
 
Psylocide said:
Problem is, Canada is bored. They really don't do anything... export syrup and Labbatt Blue? Wow... just let them make their silly game laws... that's what its all aboot.
Click to expand...

It's not Canada, it's Quebec, and they even want to try to not be part of Canada in the first place - there's an extremely active secession movement there. Ontario sucks up to them and encourages all their silly language laws just so that they stay part of Canada.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back