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[DogWelder]

New Quebec law turns Lara Croft into francophone

Sale of English-only video games prohibited if French version exists
Apr 01, 2009 04:30 AM

ANDREW CHUNG
QUEBEC BUREAU CHIEF
MONTREAL – In Lara Croft's latest action adventure, part of the wildly popular Tomb Raider video game series, the lithe heroine can demand of her evil doppelganger either, "What the hell are you?" or, "Qu'est-ce que tu es, exactement?"

And that's exactly the way Quebec wants it, from now on. 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.

It's causing a lot of consternation among retailers and gamers alike, who fear the rules will lead to delays in video games arriving in the province, and may not accomplish what the law intends, which is to promote and protect the French language.

Ronnie Rondeau, co-owner of the eight Game Buzz stores around Montreal, said he even fears bankruptcy.

"I'm afraid it's going to cost me my business," Rondeau said. "If it really was going to make a difference, I'd be for it, but only a small number of people want to play in French. The rest don't care.

"And money-wise, it's going to hurt."

Rondeau said gamers are notorious for wanting new games the minute they come out. It's why he has had numerous midnight sales with lines stretching around the block.

It's why he even carries Japanese games that won't be available in English for months.

If there's a delay of even a few days, they'll find other options, such as buying online or across the border.

Raffy Boudjikanian, who writes a gaming column for the West Island Chronicle, agrees. "Why am I going to wait for five more months when the next big game is right there in Plattsburg?"

Rondeau cites the example of the popular Rockband game. The distributor didn't ship the English-only version for the Christmas rush, and a French version didn't arrive for six weeks.

Delays can happen because translation can lead to game "bugs," such as text not fitting into graphic boxes on screen, said Haig James Toutikian, a professional Montreal game designer, who has dealt with such bugs, which can cause a game to underperform.

"I know how much of a pain they can be," Toutikian said.

"They take up a lot of bug-tracking time."

Toutikian, who said he has friends who learned English playing video games, added, "I don't think it will encourage people to buy the French version."

In the past, technical aspects, such as different game console versions sold in North America versus Europe, prevented even games released in France from appearing in Quebec. The result was that Quebec had mostly English games available.

The gaming industry adopted deadlines to comply with the province's language charter and the "language police," the Office québécois de la langue française.

Danielle Parr, executive director of the Entertainment Software Association of Canada, said that because of the population size, it's possible a game publisher will decide it's too costly to release a French version for Quebec even if it has one for France, thus depriving the province of its game in either language.

But overall, she said, "they will see more games available in French. And that's good news."

http://www.thestar.com/article/611472

Will this have much of an impact beyond what's occurred already? The deadline for publishers to comply with these regulations was April 1, but most have done so voluntarily up until now (e.g. packaging French language manuals alongside the English ones if a French language game wasn't available). The only game that has been delayed up until this point has been Rock Band. Will this affect niche titles? Issue? Non-issue?

 

[Chris Remo]

Well the point is now it affects more than just manuals. If there is a French version in France, for example (or anywhere else in the world), then Quebec retailers have to stock the French version in Quebec as well.

That could be difficult for publishers who aren't already accustomed to shipping French-language games to North America.

 

[lupinko]

BACK OFF BLOC.

 

[careful]

échouage épique

 

[suikodan]

People are over-reacting over this. Major companies are doing their homework in releasing multi-language versions of their games everywhere. Games in Canada aren't delayed because of this and shouldn't be even if the content is english-only, as long as the package is bilingual.

 

[Bisnic]

Sale of English-only video games prohibited if French version exists

This is a lie. I live in Quebec, and no where did i saw that English versions will be banned if a French version existed. The only thing this new law change is that if a French version exist somewhere in the world, we will have it. There was never a mention that English language will be banned from video games.

 

[Slavik81]

Unsurprising. Making life difficult by putting laws on language has been a pastime for the French for ages.

Well the point is now it affects more than just manuals. If there is a French version in France, for example (or anywhere else in the world), then Quebec retailers have to stock the French version in Quebec as well.

That's not what the title says. It states that if there's a French version, they can't sell English-only copies at all.

Of course, the article might be mistaken, because they never once quote the law or directly cite it.

EDIT: I think I misunderstood what you were saying with 'as well.'

 

[DogWelder]

Well the point is now it affects more than just manuals. If there is a French version in France, for example (or anywhere else in the world), then Quebec retailers have to stock the French version in Quebec as well.

That could be difficult for publishers who aren't already accustomed to shipping French-language games to North America.

In other words this law only affects games in which both French and English language versions are released simultaneously? Otherwise, they could just release the English language ones with the double manuals.

 

[Danne-Danger]

There's no Canada like french Canada it's the best Canada in the land *lalala*

 

[Erudite]

As long as it doesn't effect release dates for the rest of Canada, meh.

 

[sykoex]

Does this really affect anything? Unless the PAL version was released first (i.e. basically never for US or Japanese games), this law won't really apply. They can still release their PAL version later and just say it wasn't ready when they released it in Quebec.

This is what I'm referring to.

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.

 

[AtomicShroom]

I don't get any of the complaining. It's just bullshit.

They can't sell the English-only version if a French version exists elsewhere. How is this going to introduce any sort of delay?

For example:

- Company releases game in English only in North America. Does a French version exist yet? No? Good then it can be sold.

- 5 months later, the company releases the European multilingual version. Oh! Now a French version exists! So now the company must make a French version available in Quebec, or THEN they can no longer sell the English-only version.

How does this affect sales in any shape or form? Most sales occur in the first few months anyway! It just feels like people overreacting because they can't read properly!

 

[Mareg]

Major companies

And we all know all great games comes from major companies.
I will fight this by buying my games exclusively on ebay.com and asking for a gift package. Canada won't get my money nor any custom money from my pocket. Long live USA.

 

[DogWelder]

I don't get any of the complaining. It's just bullshit.

They can't sell the English-only version if a French version exists elsewhere. How is this going to introduce any sort of delay?

For example:

- Company releases game in English only in North America. Does a French version exist yet? No? Good then it can be sold.

- 5 months later, the company releases the European multilingual version. Oh! Now a French version exists! So now the company must make a French version available in Quebec, or THEN they can no longer sell the English-only version.

How does this affect sales in any shape or form? Most sales occur in the first few months anyway! It just feels like people overreacting because they can't read properly!

Sounds like the retailer doesn't understand his own business. :lol

 

[LCfiner]

I am watching this carefully to see if it actually affects the release date of games.

Part of me wants to think that there's no way they'd make a law so stupid that it would actually cripple businesses (ha!) but then I hear the game-crazy guy talk about it and i get worried. you would think he would know the exact impact of this law on his business, right?

hopefully he turns out to be wrong and nothing is affected.

 

[Kifimbo]

Sounds like the retailer doesn't understand his own business. :lol

Not really. He's making a bigger deal than necessary about it, but it happened with Rock Band 2.

Also, the manual law alright affected the releases of games from small publishers, like Atlus, XSEED, etc.

 

[Valtor]

I don't get any of the complaining. It's just bullshit.

They can't sell the English-only version if a French version exists elsewhere. How is this going to introduce any sort of delay?

For example:

- Company releases game in English only in North America. Does a French version exist yet? No? Good then it can be sold.

- 5 months later, the company releases the European multilingual version. Oh! Now a French version exists! So now the company must make a French version available in Quebec, or THEN they can no longer sell the English-only version.

How does this affect sales in any shape or form? Most sales occur in the first few months anyway! It just feels like people overreacting because they can't read properly!

This.

 

[Mareg]

Not really. He's making a bigger deal than necessary about it, but it happened with Rock Band 2.

Also, the manual law alright affected the releases of games from small publishers, like Atlus, XSEED, etc.

XSEED packaged a manual in paper towel for one of their game. it wrinkles at the contact of fresh air for god sake.

 

[ravien56]

so this isnt gonna affect the NA release of games in the other provinces then?

 

[AtomicShroom]

Not really. He's making a bigger deal than necessary about it, but it happened with Rock Band 2.

Also, the manual law alright affected the releases of games from small publishers, like Atlus, XSEED, etc.

But the Rock Band 2 problem was an entirely different issue.

The law requires that packaging of anything that is sold in Quebec must have French on it.
But EA for some unknown reason, presumably because they're fucking stupid, didn't produce a bilingual/French packaging for Rock Band 2. Hence it was illegal to sell it.

How hard can it possibly be to make a fucking bilingual packaging? Holy shiat.

The packaging law is completely different than this new game content law. The packaging law doesn't care whether or not a French version exists. But since the game content law is only enforceable if a French version actually exists, then it's really a non-issue, and will only serve to benefit the people who don't know English, mostly kids. How I would have loved for this law to exist back when I was a kid and didn't know a word of English.

 

[sykoex]

So it looks like this is officially a non story.

 

[AtomicShroom]

so this isnt gonna affect the NA release of games in the other provinces then?

It's not even going to affect release of games in Quebec. Unless a French version exists prior to the NA release, which never happens anyway.

 

[the_prime_mover]

So once the a game is released in french then all english versions must be pulled? How will this affect smaller publishing runs that can't afford to print a (only) NTSC French version? For the PS3, the additional size of Bluray means that multiple languages can be put on one disc. But it is unlikely that all of NTSC will now have (Canadian)Bilingual discs. PS3 also benefits from being region free for games, but other systems don't have that benefit.

I don't think that the size of the Quebec economy is really going to hurt game sales, but it might suck for the large english speaking population in Quebec.

Gawd the Quebec gov't annoys me.

 

[LCfiner]

Here's the funny thing.

we're all relieved that our government spent months and months and millions of dollars wasting time to draft a law that won't affect us in any way.

not sure if we should be happy about that. what a waste of resources.

and to satisfy who, really? the hardline "pur lain" francophones who make up an increasingly smaller portion of the population?

ugh. I need to go to my happy place. thinking about this is giving me a headache.

 

[SturokBGD]

I somehow feel that this doesn't affect me but will be the reasoning of the misinformed and impatient for many years to come.

I just want to know who's going to give me back all the time I waste when I pick up a cereal box and accidentally turn to the French side first. Every single time.

 

[shuri]

This law will be very good for french kids, because they only start get really fluent in english around highschool, and believe me, I grew up in the nes days, and it sucked to get a game that was so english heavy that you had no idea what to do.

Think of it as in getting games in japanese when youre a kid. It's the same feeling.

The law says that IF a game is also available in french somewhere, then french copies shall be made available. They arent talking about stopping releases because there isnt a french release, for fucks sake.

If it exists somewhere, then it should be made available ALONG WITH THE ORIGINAL ENGLISH RELEASE.

 

[AlphaTwo00]

Does this really affect anything? Unless the PAL version was released first (i.e. basically never for US or Japanese games), this law won't really apply. They can still release their PAL version later and just say it wasn't ready when they released it in Quebec.

This is what I'm referring to.

Yes. Actually it does, and it will be exactly like how movies work too in Quebec. Movies have to be shown in Quebec in French eventually, even if they push the English first.

If a game gets a PAL release in French later, the publisher will have to include a French shipment in their next run. Retailers won't stock games that don't have French, because they will be the first one to get sued once a game is available in French elsewhere and the publishers refuse to make a special version for NA.

Games have been delayed massively because of packaging problems already (RB and the first GH were great examples), and it's only going to get worse.

 

[AlphaTwo00]

I don't get any of the complaining. It's just bullshit.

They can't sell the English-only version if a French version exists elsewhere. How is this going to introduce any sort of delay?

For example:

- Company releases game in English only in North America. Does a French version exist yet? No? Good then it can be sold.

- 5 months later, the company releases the European multilingual version. Oh! Now a French version exists! So now the company must make a French version available in Quebec, or THEN they can no longer sell the English-only version.

How does this affect sales in any shape or form? Most sales occur in the first few months anyway! It just feels like people overreacting because they can't read properly!

In this scenario, this means that the new market for Quebec is going to be massively screwed. You're literally proposing that games to go out of print once a French version exist.

 

[shuri]

Yes. Actually it does, and it will be exactly like how movies work too in Quebec. Movies have to be shown in Quebec in French eventually, even if they push the English first.

french dubs of films are always available on the same day in theaters..

 

[Kifimbo]

But the Rock Band 2 problem was an entirely different issue.

The law requires that packaging of anything that is sold in Quebec must have French on it.
But EA for some unknown reason, presumably because they're fucking stupid, didn't produce a bilingual/French packaging for Rock Band 2. Hence it was illegal to sell it.

How hard can it possibly be to make a fucking bilingual packaging? Holy shiat.

The packaging law is completely different than this new game content law. The packaging law doesn't care whether or not a French version exists. But since the game content law is only enforceable if a French version actually exists, then it's really a non-issue, and will only serve to benefit the people who don't know English, mostly kids. How I would have loved for this law to exist back when I was a kid and didn't know a word of English.

EA's mistake was stupid, but it stills prevent people from buying the game Day 1 and it still prevents some retailers to make money from that game because of it. People bought it in Ontario, in the States, on Amazon, etc. Even though it's a different law, the consquences could be the same.

For me, in retrospect, I'm glad the games I played when I was a kid were not in French. Sure, games were harder, especially RPGs, but it help me learned English a lot better than the school system.

 

[AlphaTwo00]

french dubs of films are always available on the same day in theaters..

Yes. Well aware of that. However, they get be more laxed. The law requires moves to have a French dub in theatre no later than 40 days of the initial release.

 

[AtomicShroom]

In this scenario, this means that the new market for Quebec is going to be massively screwed. You're literally proposing that games to go out of print once a French version exist.

Yeah. Or just, you know, release the multilingual version here as well. How hard can this be?

Or how about including French to begin with? They know they're gonna have to do it at some point later on, so why not just do it for the NA release?

 

[LCfiner]

french dubs of films are always available on the same day in theaters..

when i saw Watchmen a couple weeks back, i was accidentally given a ticket to the french showing of the flick (same time as english showing).

When I got in, I was wondering why the cinema was about 80% EMPTY, then the commercials started in French and I realized what had happened. By the time I made it to the completely packed English showing, I had to get crap seats. and missed the new Star Trek trailer. boo

it bugs me that the theater had to run a movie with virtually no audience, because of the language laws.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

It's not even going to affect release of games in Quebec. Unless a French version exists prior to the NA release, which never happens anyway.

What it DOES affect though are developer/publisher schedules, budgets, sales plans, etc. It's pretty much another unique SKU they have to worry about - they can't just take the French build and relabel it, since there's PAL/NTSC considerations to deal with. And that also means another SKU to spend money on for QA/bug fixes, and get approved through first-party submission.

The company I was working at before actually started adjusting for the Quebec thing several years ago, just to integrate it into the overall planning so that by the time this passed, it wouldn't be an issue.

Yeah. Or just, you know, release the multilingual version here as well. How hard can this be?

Not as easy as you think.

Or how about including French to begin with? They know they're gonna have to do it at some point later on, so why not just do it for the NA release?

That's pretty much the approach to take (what my company did in the example I gave above, which is make a English/French NTSC SKU), though many companies do multiple SKUs in NA for different territories anyway.

 

[AlphaTwo00]

Yeah. Or just, you know, release the multilingual version here as well. How hard can this be?

Or how about including French to begin with? They know they're gonna have to do it at some point later on, so why not just do it for the NA release?

That would be nice. And Western game devs, like MS, EA, and Ubisoft gets it. But smaller ones, and Japanese ones?

I brought this up in the Canada game thread already, but Persona 3/4 are great examples. The French version was 6-9 months late between the English and French release. The problem is that many Japanese devs would never even start looking at other languages long after the english version is done.

 

[-COOLIO-]

would it reaaaaaaaaaaally be so bad if english seeped its way into Quebec?

 

[NetMapel]

Quebec French isn't even real French. I will only support language protection in Quebec if they actually use REAL French from France.

 

[TheCardPlayer]

Estie de news d'attardé pareil. J'ai rien contre sauver la langue parce que c'est sur que notre culture c'est important mais tabarnac, la dérniere affaire que je veux dans mes fucking jeux, c'est du crisse de français poche pas de sens qui fait en sorte que le jeu sort 2308023 ans plus tard. Déja qu'on recoit toute en retard, je trouve que c'est poussé pas mal.

Calisse que j'hais ca, quand y pousse le français partout. Toute des jeux sont en anglais pis ma pas me mettre a jouer en français certain, maudite gang d'imbéciles! Sortez un jeu de qualité ''made in Québec'' pis on en reparlera. Jusqu'a nouvel ordre, on est pas mal fuckés.

Quebec French isn't even real French. I will only support language protection in Quebec if they actually use REAL French from France.

How about no? :lol France french has way more foreign terms and fucked up grammar than Québec french.

 

[Bisnic]

Quebec French isn't even real French. I will only support language protection in Quebec if they actually use REAL French from France.

What exactly is "REAL French from France"? You mean how they say "parking", "chewing gum" or "shopping" instead of their real french translations? They use english words as much as we do even if it's not the same. They have their own expressions just like we have our own.

Stop the hate!

 

[LCfiner]

would it reaaaaaaaaaaally be so bad if english seeped its way into Quebec?

You can totally live in Montreal and not speak a word of French.

it's not recommended, but it is definitely possible.


if this law gets me to change one aspect of my spending habits, it'll be to get games from smaller companies earlier than usual. As, theoretically, a game could be pulled off the shelf if there's no NTSC french release after the PAL one comes out.

I don't expect that from big publishers but it could happen with some smaller games.

 

[komarkaze]

Does the Quebec version of games like GTA have characters saying things like "Tabernac!"? If so, then I can see why this law has justification for existing.

 

[Stumpokapow]

quebec haters vacate, quebec rules. i wish i could get bilingual or french-only games here!

Quebec French isn't even real French. I will only support language protection in Quebec if they actually use REAL French from France.

sorry i didn't hear you you're not speaking real english

 

[Castor Krieg]

Loving the French, always scared language will cause their precious culture to disappear. Same with France - nobody speaks English because it's FRANCE, where people speak FRENCH. So much narrow-mindness

 

[disappeared]

Mind = blown.

 

[SturokBGD]

Quebec French isn't even real French. I will only support language protection in Quebec if they actually use REAL French from France.

This is kind of silly. Like me complaining there's no Scottish English version of a game.

Yeah. Or just, you know, release the multilingual version here as well. How hard can this be?

It's not that simple. Sometimes, the European edition of a game isn't even localised or published by the same company. Look at Nintendo; sometimes (especially recently) even the English script is different from the North American one (the last Advance Wars, for example). The French script isn't commissioned by any of the North American divisions.

 

[AtomicShroom]

Does the Quebec version of games like GTA have characters saying things like "Tabernac!"? If so, then I can see why this law has justification for existing.

Absolutely not. We always get the France french.

And when a company tries to offer a localization that uses our slangs and matches our dialect, like Mario Galaxy did, the medias/associations/moms get in uproar because it's not "proper" french.

Mind = blown.

Bow before Hayley!

 

[Sgt. Killjoy]

We'll see if publishers just don't ship games to Quebec. Maybe they won't think its worth the trouble, i mean, its only Canada, and they're fake French.

 

[AtomicShroom]

We'll see if publishers just don't ship games to Quebec. Maybe they won't think its worth the trouble, i mean, its only Canada, and they're fake French.

Yeah this might very well happen for smaller publishers. Quebec probably constitutes less than 3% of their NA sales, and they'll figure that people who really want the game can just order it online.

 

[jibblypop]

You can totally live in Montreal and not speak a word of French.

That is true. I know some Americans that moved to Montreal because they thought it's "quaint" that they speak French there. Of course they don't want to actually learn French but they just feel cool being around other people that speak it. So they just keep speaking English with no intention of even learning basic French.

 

[Kifimbo]

There is another (potential) problem.

Let's say I buy an English-only game, because there is no French version at that moment. Let's say a French version is shipped elsewhere and then the English-only version can't be sold anymore. That means no retailer will buy my used copy, since it will be illegal to resell it.