Quebec law outlaws English-only titles if French versions exist [update]

Idiocy at its best. I hope this kind of law will not be introduced in the US, although I have a feeling it will. On the other hand, this shouldn't pose a problem for Sony, as PSP and PS3 games are region free, and importers will gain more sales. However, this will suck for region-locked games.

Serious question, does anybody know of any place you could order games from Quebec online? I'm a French major and I actually think it's interesting and helpful to be able to play games in French.

wow, worst government ever. what a bunch of retards, why the fuck would we want a dumb french game when we play online with people who speak english? i'll just buy the damn games online from now on. go fuck yourself dumb govrnment.

btw, to those who read the date of the artical, read http://www.westislandchronicle.com/article-319465-Cest-quoi-un-1up-in-French.html

That was posted on the 27th.

I'm not even Canadian and I hate Quebec.

This appears to simply be another extension of Loi 101.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charter_of_the_French_Language

I have also been a "victim" of this law. I use this term loosely because being bilingual it does not really bother me that much. I just like my entertainment in the original language. I got had with a copy of CODWAW recently for the PC. I ended up torrenting an english copy of the game and using the CDkey from my french copy to be able to play the game. Since most of the PC games are usually the French I.E. European games the whole control scheme is set around the AZERTY keyboard. I say if the damn thing is not localized for the francophone North American market then it should not be on the shelves. But this is not going to happen so best read the box carefully before buying I suppose ;)

This is bad, and not the first time I hear of the french wanting to "protect" their language. I visited France few years back, and I swear, people there spoke HORRIBLE english. I couldn't even get a fork at a restaurant and the waitress was 20-something, you'd expect her to know english through and through. Sure, your language is one of the nicer sounding ones in this world, but that doesn't mean you should be ignorant fuck who feels HE doesn't need to learn other languages, but other people should learn his language. Goddamn French.

I applaud the fact that hey more than one language. But wh do it in a way the only makes you look like BIGGER asshats?

Not only is it Incredibly egocentric, but why stop at just ONLY ENGLISH?
Why not force everything to be in Chinese, one of the most spoken laguages on the planet?

This only makes Esperanto look BETTER. and to do that is a Double Fail.

First of all, the new law clearly states: "...lorsque la version française existe quelque part dans le monde." In other words, stores are only required to sell the French version if a French version of the game actually exists. It's not outlawing outright the sale of English games in Quebec. This article should be updated to clarify that because, as it stands, it's practically relaying false information.

Second of all, this law has already been applicable to PC games in Quebec for more than a year. Unless there are some statistics somewhere that show the law has so far proven harmful to retailers in some way, why the big uproar now that it's being applied to consoles as well?

Why not order from France?

Does this mean they'll stop including french instructions for the rest of Canada? i sure hope so, those things are a waste of paper.

screw Quebec. ooooo, french this, french that. way to ruin the cover art on all the games, DVDs and Blu-Rays. i honestly hope they seperate. they're so damn stuck up.

Man. I'm glad to be living in BC, I love my country but this is another example of Quebec smegging things up.
I mean, there is French on EVERYTHING here... Look at the Orange box game cover... It's hard to find the English... The only people I've met here who speak "French" are the French immersion students and most of them hate Quebec too...
/rant

I live in Quebec and honestly couldn't care less about French.
And on top of that this " Ronnie Rondeau " is a fraud. I worked for gamebuzz, I was manager there, That fucker Fired me, FALSELY Accused me of Thieft and fired me, I'm in court At the moment to get this Bastard back so you know what. I HONESTLY do hope this Causes him to lose his job,
I'm part of a Facebook Group of all ppl that got F*cked By gamebuzz Check it out.
I HOPE IMPORTANT PPL READ THIS>

Won't make a any problems. If you wanted to sell a game in France you had to do this already, what it will do is require a new SKU from the publishers that allows for the French FIGS SKU to be localized to a French Canada SKU, and this is already done by a ton of games.

Har har Canadanians are stoopid.

It seems kind of ridiculous, and it is; but I think that it would be nice if games had more than one language available to play the game in. Should we ban games that have this? Hell no. But it would admittedly open up a lot of people who have never tried a game before.

I really wish people would stop hating on us and all. Yes, our provincial government can be a load of bullshit and all, and there are quite a few really stupid, extremists and seperatists, it doesn't mean the entire populace of french canadians are. Many that I know, even myself, are seperatistic at all.

I find this law to be ridiculous, and another sign of how arrogant 'some' people can be around here, especially considering how they probably didn't take the time to figure what the downside of this retarded new law might be; lack of releases in Quebec, loss of the video game market, many many shops and stores closed down due to lack of sales. It's all very stupid.

In the end, however, you ignorant assholes that keep shitting all over anything and anyone related to Québec really need to just shut up for a moment and think of what it is their saying. You yourselves are just degrading your own nationality in the sense that it makes everyone else from there look just as ignorant, just as retarded, as you; and if there's anything you've learned from at the very least my post is that that is not true, there is always a larger populace of smarter and more intelligent people in a place. It just so happens the retards are the louder speaking type, and latter overshadows the former.

This is the only thing I hate about my Province

Fucking goddamn 101 Law

GOD FUCKING DAMMIT.

Dammit! I love Montreal, this city's freakin awesome, but sometimes our government just aggravates the crap out of me!!!!

ARRGHHGG!

Good. Looks good on them.

Vote Partie Quebecois!

How's Quebec's economy doing lately? 'Cause I'm sure this law will help..... >.>

No wonder we have problem understanding each others.

The "new" law says that a french game must be made available IF it exists somewhere in the world. (source: http://www.olf.gouv.qc.ca/francisation/consommateurs/secteur/jeux_video/jeuxvideo.html Sorry, but yes
it is in french)

The law is meant to help people who wants to play games in french to be able to do so.

The law has been applicable to computer video games since October 2007. The deadline for the console market was extended to April 2009.

ARTICLE: As of April 1st, it became illegal to sell an English language-only version of a video game if a French version is available.

JOYSTIQ: Beginning today, if you live in Quebec and want to buy a game that doesn't contain French text or voice-over -- you can't. You'll have to wait until one becomes available

A French game??? What's the point, they will surrender within 5 minutes,,, filthy cowards.

Hi, I'm french canadian and I agree with you that this law is really retarded. I think the people involved in this have no idea what the hell they're doing. They should apply the same for games than for movies. They're both cultural product and not just entertainment. The problem is they're all old douche bag that don't realyse that video games are now impregnated into our culture: we make jokes about it, songs agout it, etc...

And for your information: 80% of the population of Québec is french. English people in Québec are pratically only in Montréal and a lot of them think they are in majority and they can live here without understanding or speaking a word of french... So yes we have to protect our culture and our language because it have nothing to do with the rest of Canada or the US... and the funniest thing about this is that english people of Québec usually think the same... so why can't we unite ? ... I guess because it's more fun to simply hate ourselfs. So go F**K yourself !!!

If you think this is a problem with french canadians, you are 100% wrong. I'm a french canadian, and I think that this is absolutely rediculous. I oppose law 101 completely, which is essentially what is giving the OLF the power to do this. This law exists regardless of whether a separatist power is elected, or a liberal party is elected, therefore citizens of quebec are essentially powerless to fight this.

You think that Quebec needs oil money from alberta? Don't be rediculous, you ass. Quebec has the highest hydro-electric production capacity in north america, a resource that is RENEWABLE and isn't ruining our environment (compared to albertan oil production)

I fear that movies, books, music, etc etc are next. Instead of using this as an excuse to hate on a province (and a people) you know nothing about, how about supporting the quebec people in fighting these actions? Let's stand together as canadians instead of being ignorant fools.

You hate french canadians? You racist piece of trash, i bet you hate jews, blacks, chinese, and anyone else different also. Look back in your lineage and i'm sure that more than half of you have french blood in your family.

For the record, the seperatist movement in quebec is DEAD, and I went to english school. The law of french schools is for people who's parents were not born in canada. If they were to move here and not learn french, then they would essentially be at a disadvantage, so this is more to protect people. I personally think it is wrong, but there are an infinite number of places people could move if they wanted to live in english only areas. On top of this, a court ruling recently granted someone the right to go to school in english, setting precedence that could eventually lead to abolition of this law.

Before you open your mouths and berate a people who have done nothing to affect your lives, why don't you go read a book instead of instantly spewing hate. You may realize that quebec is an integral part of canadian history.

I'd just like to point out that a whole bunch of us French speaking Quebecers are totally against separation and any language-based law. My roots are as French Canadian as you can get and I still think the Govt are a bunch of morons.

Also, I love Canada and I am not "indigenous". :)

Now see, I'm a french-canadian myself and even I think this new ruling is just plain stupid. Our government needs to review protection of the french language in school, not on my damn game consoles.

No because that's the company saving printing and manufacturing costs.

Because of Quebec, the WHOLE of North America gets bilingual instruction manuals for Nintendo games, with the two languages being English and French. Since they HAVE to print French for one province, they just distribute it to the whole continent.

No sign of Spanish though, which would ACTUALLY make sense.

holy shit you guys are bitchy all it means that if theres a french version that they have to sell both


Im half Acadian and Quebecer :P

and anyway why would half of you give a fuck, its our problem not yours, and anyway i order my games from amazon so i don't give a fuck.

and why are you people hating people from quebec??? its not our fucking fault that our government is retarded

and theres been stupider laws in america about games over violence and sex but everyone now freaks out because we want games in french i mean if u live in spain ur not gonna want a game in japanese

Allez tous chiez et mangez de la marde!

Vive le Quebec libre!

They need to start producing games in first nation languages.