France may not have the Quarter Pounder with Cheese, but it will soon have Capcom. The publisher is opening offices in the country that brought us such great things as champagne, escargot, and jokes about France as part of continuing efforts to increase sales of its games in Europe.

Capcom Entertainment France will report directly to Capcom Entertainment Europe, and we're sure it will soon be hard at work on localized versions of such famous franchises as Homme de Méga, Combattant de Rue, and Mal Résident.

European gaming giant Ubisoft has settled on a fairly classy location for
its second annual trade show - the Louvre Museum in Paris, France. Ubidays 2008 will run two days, starting Wednesday, May 28. Invitations have begun to arrive at European press and business partners, according to MCV.

Ubisoft has not revealed a lineup or event program for the event. Last year's Ubidays showed off Assassin's Creed, Tom Clancy's EndWar, and Splinter Cell: Conviction, and teased gamers with a Wii holographic projector.

Are England's gamers Chunneling their way to Wii ownership? They are according to British tabloid The Daily Mirror, which reports that the English are desperate enough for their Wii's to travel to another country for them.

According to the Mirror, the French city of Calais has seen British shoppers lining up outside of its electronics stores to snag the oft-coveted console. The Channel Tunnel train arrives in France near the coastal city, where many shops have instituted a "one oui Wii per customer" policy. Despite the shortages seen in the States and in England, the Nintendo Wii can still be readily found in France. Good news for the English. And how nice for the French, too!

The European Commission has approved film industry tax breaks to the video game industry. The request was made by the French government and the program will offer a 20% rebate to games that have a "criteria of quality, originality and contribute to cultural diversity." It is estimated that half of the games created in Europe this year would have qualified for the rebate. There's obviously some easy French jokes that could be tossed in here, but let's build bridges, shall we?

Governments recognizing games as "culture" and supporting the industry with tax incentives is an issue that's popping up with developers all over the world. Canada is kind to developers, while Australian developers (last time we heard) continue to fight for tax breaks in their country where the film industry actually gets a 40% tax rebate. The countries which cut the costs, promote the industry and look yummy to developers already strapped for cash.

As expected, and later confirmed, the Xbox Live Video Marketplace just went, err, live in five more regions, which we'll present to you here in order of density of stand-up comic talent: Canada, followed by the UK, Ireland, France, and Germany (sorry, Germans).

After what seemed like an eternity spent watching the US hoard the video marketplace's direct-to-video horror films and forgettable sci-fi action flicks all to itself, our international friends can finally throw their Microsoft Points down on some SD and/or HD content delivered in clean, environmentally friendly zeros and ones. Coincidentally, that's about the Metacritic average of most of the movies on the service. Experiment in Torture? Really?

Like a thunderbolt hurled from Mt. Olympus, "Xbox Live Marketplace Video Store" (aka Video Marketplace) clashes onto Canadian and select European servers next Tuesday, December 11th. As promised, Microsoft will deliver its digital movie rental service (TV content is on the back burner for new territories) before the winter solstice, bringing endearing classics like Demolition Man, Lethal Weapon 4 and Analyze This into the homes of millions of Xbox Live users.

As foretold, Video Marketplace's initial European expansion will be limited to the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, and Germany. Films will be available to rent in both standard definition and high definition for 250 and 380 MS Points, respectively. While that may sound like a bargain to Americans used to the 320/480 points tag, the European pricing has simply been adjusted to reflect the strength of the Euro (1 Euro is now worth nearly $1.50). Usage restrictions will be identical to those found in the US, and video rentals will expire within 24 hours of first usage or 14 days after download.

Every other week Scott Jon Siegel contributes Off the Grid, a column normally about gaming away from the television screen or monitor.

I'm breaking from tradition to answer a nagging question: What happens to a gamer when he moves to another country?

And I'm not talking about board and card games here. I'm talking about the console and portable gamers. In the face of voltage conversions, video signals, and region-locking, how does an invested gamer stay on the grid?

I ask the question because I went through this same problem very recently. Two weeks ago, I made the move from the east coast of the United States to the south of France. Being invested in games not only casually, but professionally, I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to bring along my consoles, and therefore be out of the gaming loop for the entirety of my European residency.

Luckily, however, I was able to devise a feasible solution, and my American-born consoles have been operating overseas without any problems. So, waving a temporary bye-bye to the non-digital gaming focus of this column, I'd like to share my recipe for international gaming success.

French gaming site Jeux France has what it claims is the first images of the new NiGHTS title for Wii, from magazine scans of Portuguese magazine Maxi Consola. (We're so multicultural.) So far, NiGHTS has been an extremely persistent rumor; this is the either the first concrete evidence of the title's existence or the cleverest Photoshop effort to date.

The magazine scans feature an interview with Takashi Iizuka (here written Takeshi), a Sega developer who's had a hand or two in every Sonic game since 1994 as well as the original NiGHTS Into Dreams. Our Portuguese is a bit pathetic, but Play Nintendo has translated the interview. The game is purported to have a two player mode and some online capabilities. Jeux France purports that Sega will make an announcement early April.

When you think of hubs of international game development, France probably doesn't leap to the front of the list. But the country hosts major game makers like Ubisoft and Atari and famous creators like Beyond Good and Evil's Michel Ancel and Alone in the Dark's Frédérick Raynal.

The country's game making reputation might just grow if the French government has anything to say about it. Wired reports on a recently passed French law granting special tax breaks to French game makers through the "exception Francaise."

The exemption still has to be approved by the European Union, but even if it is, don't expect to see a flood of mindless shoot-'em-ups to come out of the country. French Culture Ministry Adviser Marc Herubel told Wired that tax-exempt games must be "culturally relevant," meaning they have "a narration of some kind and a scenario written in French with elements of adventure or simulation games." So, apparently, some of the most important games of all time wouldn't be culturally relevant enough for the ministry just because they didn't have French narration? Way to fight that elitist French stereotype, there.

Previously: France vies to give artful tax break for game industry

SCEE France president Georges Fornay didn't choose his words carefully. Just days after Devil May Cry and Ace Combat, two long-time Sony exclusives, were announced for Xbox 360, on the eve of PlayStation 3's "official" European launch, Fornay told French newspaper Les Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, "Enfin, pour Final Fantasy XIII, je peux vous dire que l'exclusivité est en discussion." That's something like: As far as Final Fantasy XIII goes, I can tell you that the exclusivity is in discussion. Well Georges, it looks like you'll be sleeping on the couch tonight.

But the repercussions of Fornay's vague remark go beyond losing pillow-talk privileges with Mr. Kutaragi. His words have ignited a polarized frenzy of paranoia and glee -- despite the obvious ambiguity of "l'exclusivité est en discussion." What does Fornay mean?

Well, that wasn't much of a race. After being on store shelves for little more than a day, World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade has gained its first level 70 in French player, Gullerbone.

Clocking in at 28 hours, Gullerbone's journey from the lowly plain of mortals known as level 60 to the god-esque status of 70 seems almost disappointing for a task estimated to take most players a few months at the very least. Somewhere, in the halls of Blizzard, someone has slapped their forehead.

For the curious, Gullerbone goes deeper into the method of his leveling madness in an interview with World of Raids. While his act of gaming fortitude is commendable, we're just glad that no babies died in the process this time.

Gullerbone can now look forward to sitting on his hands, waiting for the rest of the folks on his server to catch up so that he can actually do something worth his level. Congratulations!

France's Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres is hoping to classify gaming as art. In doing so, the French gaming industry including Ubisoft, Vivendi and Infogrames would receive a 20 percent tax break. France already considers cinema a form of art.

Ignoring the debate on whether or not gaming is an art, the classification has major opposition from the games industry in and around France. The primary concern, as explained by Patrice Chazerand of Interactive Software Federation of Europe, is government interference with the game design process. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot supports the tax break, though its no surprise since Ubisoft could only benefit from savings when their developer studios are too global for French interference.

In March, French decreed the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres to game designers Michel Ancel, Frédérick Raynal and Shigeru Miyamoto.

During a Warhammer: Mark of Chaos demonstration at Namco's obnoxiously loud booth:

Developer: So, are you familiar with the Warhammer universe? It's very popular in the US, I'm sure you must have it in France.
Joystiq: Umm...France?
Developer: You mean Joystiq isn't based in France?

Weird. (We're actually based in Finland.)

Call of Duty 3's just been confirmed, and it looks like we were right on the money with our early leak of the WWII-related game.

Back in early March, we printed the following information (and a whole lot more) on the focus of an upcoming sequel: "'CoD 3' ... is being produced by Big Red One dev Treyarch. ... The next Call of Duty World War II-based title will return gamers to the battlefields of Normandy as the Allies take on Nazi Germany to drive them out of France once and for all. This time around, American and British forces are joined by Canadian troops, Polish tanks, and French freedom fighters in a reenactment of the bloody Normandy Breakout campaign spearheaded during the summer of 1944. In the push to Paris, you'll get to choose how you approach each mission, free of menu screens and jarring non-interactive cut-scenes."

Here's what IGN quoted from Activision for the announcement yesterday: "Through the eyes of four Allied soldiers, Call of Duty 3 brings players closer to the fury of combat as they fight through the Normandy Breakout, the harrowing offensive that liberated Paris and changed the fate of the world. Developed by Treyarch, Call of Duty 3 is the follow up to the #1 next-generation game and is scheduled for a 2006 release." Fingering the developer and the setting? Not too shabby -- while Joystiq pats itself on the back.

Check out the IGN trailer below for a first-person look somewhat reminiscent of the FPS sequence in the Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer from TGS. At the end of the "official E3 teaser" trailer, a number of platforms are listed, with the major manufacturers (including a small "Nintendo Revolution" in text) and publisher/developer combo listed. We suspect that versions for the PC and possibly the current-gen consoles will be covered with ports as well. Now all we have to do is wait for the word on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. (Infinity Ward, we're looking at you!) More info obviously hitting at E3.

[Thanks, icemorebutts, jason, & Hiro Protagonist]

[Update 1: Had to fix a verb. Thanks, Hiro Protagonist, John Q, & Jiiiiihad!]

See also:

• Official E3 teaser trailer for Call of Duty 3
• Next Call of Duty leaked: Modern Warfare tackles terrorists
• Rumor: Call of Duty joining the Revolution
• Kojima interacts in real-time with MGS4 trailer at TGS

In a radio interview with Générations Europe 1 yesterday, George Fornay -- president of Sony Computer Entertainment France and vice president of Sony Computer Entertainment Europe -- let a little something slip: the PlayStation 3 will cost between €499 and €599. That's somewhere between $613 to $736 in American dollars! He was sure to point out that while this might sound like a lot of money for a game system, it was in fact cheap for a Blu-ray compatible playback system. Yay?

Since I can't seem to get the radio stream to work (and don't understand French if I could) Update: The radio stream has started cooperating, though the French thing is still in the way. If you speak Français, you can jump to the 8-minute mark for the scoop. The news comes to us (via Google's translation services) from Play France. Now, this could be a language barrier problem, but the untranslated page still reads "entre 499 euros et 599 euros donc."

Sony already told us it was going to be expensive and we already know the parts ain't cheap, so either Mr. Fornay is trying to set up an unrealistic price expectation -- only to have it shattered when the PS3 price is revealed to be $7.50 -- or he broke the first (and second) rules of the Sony executive's PS3 club: don't talk about the PS3. This thing is going to cost that much just like the PSP was gonna cost $500.