Hey French Canadians, want to play English only video games? Forget it!
New legislation in Quebec now prohibits the sale of English-only video games if a French version is available. The store cannot carry only the English language version if a French version is available.
The catch traditionally has been for Quebec is that game publishers typically release French versions for PAL consoles and not North American ones — hence, loads of English games in Quebec.
Montreal game retailer Ronnie Rondeau, "I'm afraid it's going to cost me my business. 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."
For example, when Rock Band was first released in Canada, it was English-only. With Christmas around the corner, the game was snapped up by French-speaking Canadians. You know what? There are French Canadian gamers who don't care if games are in English or even Japanese, for that matter. They just want to play video games.
Making legislation to control what language French Canadians play their games in seems rather draconian.
Update: While the Star article makes it seem as though this is banning video English language video games, the new law does not prohibit the sale of English-only video games. Rather, it asks of the publisher to make a french version available if and when it exists, which means Quebec's gamers will still be able to purchase the English version and do so at the same time as everyone else in the world.
New Quebec law turns Lara Croft into francophone [The Star via GamePolitics via VG247] [Pic]