Important News story if you live in Quebec

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"Sale of English-only video games prohibited if French version exists. French language rules on video games come into force today prohibiting the sale of new English-only video games in Quebec if a French version is available." Toronto Star

Full article

Kotaku Post.

I guess we'll be starting Games for our Quebec brothers re-shipping site.
 
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I don't understand why these people need these silly laws protecting their language. It's nonsense.

People who live in Gatineau will just cross the border into Ottawa but everybody else is going to have some problems getting their games on Day 1.

I'm still angry over how these language laws kept me and other Canadians from playing No More Heroes for two weeks. This has got to stop. There are two official languages and Quebec has to stop thinking that everybody in their province is Francophone. There are plenty of Anglophones and Allophones; where are their rights?

Funny thing, many people here don't even speak Metropolitan French. They speak Joual.
 
It's pretty disgusting the amount of preferential treatment Quebec expects... and gets. Frankly they want their cake and they eat it too. I feel for my fellow Canadians who are expected to live a certain way just because they live in Quebec.

To me the whole move seems unconstitutional but even if it is, it'll take years to get it reviewed.
 
they wanted to inforce that law a couple of years ago and a friend that worked at a Toys R Us and he had to remove all the game that weren't translated. After that the game rack was almost empty.
Im all for the preservation of the french language (I am french) but they need to make that law for all of Canada. Since its a big market and the country is bilingual, the game publishers wont consider not releasing a game in Quebec because of that law.
A french guy in Vancouver should have the same treament as one that lives in Montreal.
 
Unfortunatly you are mostly misinformed but I can't blame any you since the article in the Toronto Star was a weak attemp at Québec Bashing disguised as information. Even Kotaku got mistaken and posted an update.

They can sell english only games but if there is a french version available they have to sell it as well. I guess the downside is it take a little more shelve space.

I dont know whats wrong about that and why a retail store would not sell the french version of the game if its available and cost the same, afterall it does bring people in the store in a province where 80% of the people speak french.

As for that game store manager Ronnie Rondeau and that Rock Band delay story. There is a part of the story that he is not telling, when Rock Band got out he was the only one selling the game in montreal for a while because he was bringing them from Plattsburg and selling them for twice the MSRP.

The delay wasnt because the game wasnt in french but because the packaging and instruction booklet were not available in a french version (wich is required by law but in quebec only). We all know it does not take 6 week to transalte a box and a instruction manual. My guess is that EA just didnt have the stock to do a simultaneous launch in Canada and the US and it just too easy to blame the silly Quebecer who want their games instruction in french
 
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[quote name='whisper450']
They can sell english only games but if there is a french version available they have to sell it as well. I guess the downside is it take a little more shelve space.[/quote]


They should probably have been doing that all along. If you're a game retailer in Quebec and there's a translated version available, why NOT sell it?

But at the same time, how many games actually get translated into French? I'm not talking manuals either, those generally come in English/French as a matter of course, but the actual game? I don't think I've ever actually seen that.
 
[quote name='whisper450']They can sell english only games but if there is a french version available they have to sell it as well. I guess the downside is it take a little more shelve space.

I dont know whats wrong about that and why a retail store would not sell the french version of the game if its available and cost the same, afterall it does bring people in the store in a province where 80% of the people speak french.[/quote]

Erm, I thought the point of this is if a French version is available anywhere (ie: PAL versions in France), then it must be released here. Or else they give the English version the boot from Quebec. There are plenty of French versions out there that never see NTSC releases...

Edit: If you're wondering some specific titles that would fit this, check out Sony Index. They have partial lists of the languages games were released with in PAL regions. Skim over it looking for stuff that's PAL-F. I imagine this new law only applies to new releases, but there are plenty of older bigname games that have French versions. Can you imagine the rage if Final Fantasy X was prohibited for sale?
 
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I am from Ohio and moved to Canada 7 years ago. It is annoying as hell that everything has french on it, and I can actually read french. I have run into maybe 4 people total in the entire GTA that truly speak french. Hell, there are more people that speak chinese than french around here, yet we have to have french on every goddamn thing?
 
[quote name='Zing']I am from Ohio and moved to Canada 7 years ago. It is annoying as hell that everything has french on it, and I can actually read french. I have run into maybe 4 people total in the entire GTA that truly speak french. Hell, there are more people that speak chinese than french around here, yet we have to have french on every goddamn thing?[/quote]

Very true, I think Canada needs to let go of the whole bi-lingual thing a little and begin to realize that this is a multi-cultural nation and trying to stuff languages down peoples throats just isn't going to work.

I hated having to learn French in school, and I speak Portuguese... the class was so easy yet I hated it...

More people speak foreign languages than they do French. Stop trying to be like the States and just let people live. This isn't a melting pot.
 
[quote name='djsaiyan']But at the same time, how many games actually get translated into French? I'm not talking manuals either, those generally come in English/French as a matter of course, but the actual game? I don't think I've ever actually seen that.[/quote]

More than you might think. Out of the 10 360 game i have a i think 7 have a french translation but you actually have to set the console language to french to see the french version of those game. Ubisoft translate all there game in 5 languages and all game produced in quebec (about 50% of canada vid game production is here) are billingual

Some translation are complete with new voice and text, other are just subtitle and text. Some are great, other are shitty (but for the most part shitty).

Here is a list of game that can be played in french: http://jouezenfrancais.branchez-vous.com/plateforme/xbox_360/

its in french but there is a lot of image to help you out :)

[quote name='ragnar14']Erm, I thought the point of this is if a French version is available anywhere (ie: PAL versions in France), then it must be released here. Or else they give the English version the boot from Quebec. There are plenty of French versions out there that never see NTSC releases...

Edit: If you're wondering some specific titles that would fit this, check out Sony Index. They have partial lists of the languages games were released with in PAL regions. Skim over it looking for stuff that's PAL-F. I imagine this new law only applies to new releases, but there are plenty of older bigname games that have French versions. Can you imagine the rage if Final Fantasy X was prohibited for sale?[/quote]

I checked the list for ps3 french only game that were released only in pal and i found 3: Call of duty 3, Spiderman 3 and the Godfather the don edition.

CoD world at war has french in the ntsc version, the new godfather do as well, same for spider-man web of shadows. Companies are adapting, i dont think any of them would pass on a 8 million people market just besause they wont bother adding a couple mb of localization text, especially when the text as already been made for another market.
 
btw... Quebec is an unilingual french only province
english ISN'T an official language in Quebec

but yeah the problem is more than what it looks like... I know we're not in 1960 anymore... but without those laws... french speaking people would be poor guys today
it was a racist province... french people didn't have any rights... government had to do something about it and that's what happened
you guys should read how bad was Quebec for french people back in 1950

don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that law is good today
I am perfectly bilingual today and I wouldn't care less if games weren't available in french... but my girlfriend doesn't even know what yes and no mean... watching movies in english is a no go for her... she wouldn't understand a word.. these laws are for them (which is more than 90% of people living here)
 
Your girlfriend would understand English if the province didn't have the french laws. The laws got her into that situation.
 
Ugh all this talk about Quebec makes me sick. We should let them detach themselves from Canada and float along in their own sea of ignorance.
 
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