Quebec enforces bilingual game law

By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpotPosted Apr 3, 2009 11:16 am PT

Canadian province puts into effect decade-old measure prohibiting sale of English-only games when French version is available.

In the past, governments have tried to ban games for being too violent or too sexy, but now the Canadian province of Quebec is coming down on games for being too English. As reported by The Toronto Star, new rules take effect this week that prohibit the sale of English-only games in Quebec when there's a French version available.

Anglais? Non!

One Quebecois retailer told the paper that the move could put him out of business, as gamers wanting the latest titles on day one would rather buy online or from another province than wait for a French edition of a game to arrive. He cited Rock Band as a game that would have been impacted by the law, saying that only the English version made it out in time for the 2007 Christmas rush, with a French version lagging six weeks behind.

While the law went into effect April 1, it has been on the books for more than a decade. Quebec actually added the game restriction to its Charter of the French Language in 1997 but chose not to enforce it.

While French and English are shared as the official languages of Canada, Quebec claims French as its proper tongue. To enforce the use of its official language, the province has the Office Quebecois de la Langue Francaise. According to the Office's charter, its duty is to ensure "that French is the normal and everyday language of work, communication, commerce and business in the civil administration and in enterprises. The Office may, among other things, take any appropriate measure to promote French."

331 Comments

  • AdjacentLives

    Posted Nov 14, 2009 5:59 pm PT

    It's funny... ever since my Father married a Quebecer I've learned that a lot of their population prefers to do things in english when it comes to RnB music, most types of movies and video games. If anything this is going to have a negative effect, not a positive one. Oh well, sucks to live in Quebec.

  • adrian296

    Posted Nov 10, 2009 5:28 pm PT

    quebec should be their own country

  • adrian296

    Posted Nov 10, 2009 5:26 pm PT

    im doin some newspaper on quebec. quebec is very very different

  • spag007

    Posted Oct 11, 2009 9:48 am PT

    Paladin basic, we're not French... we're Quebeckers. Would you like it if I told you (probably you are american, such ignorance) that you were British? I think not!

  • Damien2k3

    Posted Oct 8, 2009 9:16 pm PT

    What people should understand is this:
    The law does not say that all games must be translated.
    It says that if a version of the game has been translated AND made available in Quebec, then this is the one that must be sold here by the retailers. So a game that is only available in english can still be sold.
    It does not mean that english will be banned. A multi-lingual version will not be impacted by this law. And there are a lot of multi games these days. So the law, while not ideal, is not all bad and it has a deeper purpose than forcing companies to invest in translations. Quebec has a majority of french speaking people. It is part of our history and it is a reality. While it is unfortunate that not enough québecois can speak english as well as french, you can fault them for that. It would be the same as bashing an american that does not speak french or spanish.
    and let's keep politics out of our games. I'm grateful that I can play games in the original version while my son, who does not understand english yet (but will soon), can also play a game and understand it. We play for fun... right?

  • Granpire

    Posted Oct 6, 2009 6:47 pm PT

    I understand the Quebec government, but I also understand the retailer's frustration. This basically means that if the game has a European version, these retailers will have to buy that version.

  • Yannick_18

    Posted Aug 21, 2009 5:30 pm PT

    Arrogant French ?! You think it's the people who wants that ?! You guys are stupid to believe this ?! I speak french myself because I live in Quebec and I personnally think this is STUPID! I wanna play my games in english because the translations are done wrong... there's no way I will to a RPG in french! Comme vous pouvez le constater, je parle francais!

  • Drower

    Posted Aug 14, 2009 4:26 am PT

    Haha, those crazy frogs.

  • AlbertiRAGD13

    Posted Jun 10, 2009 8:27 pm PT

    Damn, I've heard that Quebec was kinda against the English, but this is a bit far.

  • Paladin_basic

    Posted Jun 9, 2009 1:28 pm PT

    Typical. Arrogant French. Charles de Gaulle has one hell of a lot to answer for. Want my opinion? Let them eat cake

  • scorch0188

    Posted May 31, 2009 4:58 pm PT

    Man, I thought it was annoying when english honor kids would correct your grammar at school, but this is just ridiculous.

  • Silver_bLooD

    Posted May 31, 2009 4:18 pm PT

    wow, did you ever stop and think Quebec that perhaps English games will help the french, speak or write English better? Not hard to slip form Hull to Ottawa a pick up an English game. I bet they wouldn't like us if we stopped teaching French in Schools.

  • shani_boy101

    Posted May 27, 2009 12:44 am PT

    these guys are a bit to nationalist, if they want everything in French then campaign to get your own country.

  • SlayerX13

    Posted May 23, 2009 11:37 pm PT

    If France is cool with it then Quebec needs to get over. Boycotting games because they don't spend the money to translated everything into french. Make your own games then and boycott EVERYTHING that is not in french.

    So America has an ego because NY has flags on their bus but Quebec does not because they demand multinational corporations to pamper them. I think they will just tell Quebec to F off and gamers will just go the net town over to get their games. Quebec is notorious for over inflated egos so don't even go there.That doesn't pertain to every resident their but you that live in Quebec know the type I am speaking about.

  • proair92

    Posted May 17, 2009 8:21 pm PT

    People bashing the law obviously do not know the history behind it. When the then french colony was taken over by the english, the french wanted to conserve their language and culture. Today, with our modernized society, if such laws did not exist, french would surely disappear in north america, along with a very rich culture. After just returning from New York, New York, I can safely say that this sort of patriotism is nothing compared to the American ego, having the American flag on everything from buses to buildings.

    Though I do not fully agree with the video game censorship, I am somewhat for culture preservation.

  • Megamanx266

    Posted May 3, 2009 11:53 pm PT

    So... our Federal government pretty much BRIBES Quebec not to seperate and what do they do to thank us? They continue to QQ no matter what from the looks of things. Oh, and Quebec's government is sounding more like a dictatorship than a democracy every time I hear about them QQing over something stupid like this.

  • boogernator

    Posted Apr 18, 2009 10:18 am PT

    i'm bad at french........

  • SpicPeso

    Posted Apr 15, 2009 3:47 am PT

    the people that came up with this law are idiot dickheads, pardon my french.

  • xolivierx

    Posted Apr 12, 2009 4:35 pm PT

    I am from Quebec. I like my games to be in English even though French is my 1st language. It's the same for movies. Because translating something means it's been modified ; it's just not the same. And excuse me, if I play a japanese game, I certainly don't want to see french canadian expressions in the game's dialogues. It just breaks the magic. Besides, how bad could it be for people to try to learn English. It opens alot of door. Why not go to the next level : we should only have movies with white actors playing in canada since the majority of people is white. That would be as stupid. I'm sorry, but speaking 2 languages or more is NOT a bad thing. I just can't believe some people sat around a table, discussed about this, and came with the idea of having games translated in French an obligation. Why don't they ban English music too once and for all.... sigh

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