If you're wondering what the abstract translates to:

"We will make a contribution and write a portion of this article in the French language!"

You see, we care about you too, Quebec.

Does that mean games in Quebec will be released later then their "untranslated" counterparts? If so, screw that deal, I'd tather get the game in english on time rather then in both languages 2 months later =/

Quebec, welcome to Europe?

It's not an agreement, it's the idiotic Quebec goverment who passed a law stating that if the game is released in French anywhere in the world, it has to be in French in Quebec too. So basically any game released in Europe will have to be translated into French if it is released in Quebec too.

Since this will require extra time and money, expect games from small/budget publishers (like Majesco, Atlus, Nippon Ichi, Xseed) to either not be released in Quebec or released much later (since it might not be worth the cost just to release it in just one province). Gamers in Quebec better get ready to have to order certain games like RPGs from an online site like Amazon Canada since I know there will be publishers who would rather not release the game in Quebec rather than waste time and resources like this. Pity that gamers will have to suffer because of their provincial government.

"Does that mean games in Quebec will be released later then their 'untranslated' counterparts? If so, screw that deal, I'd tather get the game in english on time rather then in both languages 2 months later"

I'm more concerned about this affecting the entire country. Will a bilingual version be the ONLY version released in Canada? Will Canada as a whole have to wait for translations? Considering that the Quebec government is who is making the deal I'd assume no for now but Quebec has a lot of clout with the federal government. Quebec may whine about waiting longer and using "Canadian government logic" the solution will be to have the rest of the country suffer too.

Methinks areas in Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland near the provincial border are going to get a rise in game sales with Quebec residents popping by for games on time.

Probably no one who actually plays games is requesting this.

That sucks. How can Quebec choose to be so... stand-offish?

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Originally posted by: Kairon
That sucks. How can Quebec choose to be so... stand-offish?

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Is Québec still trying to become independent? I haven't heard anything about that in a while.

"Pity that gamers will have to suffer because of their provincial government."

Doesn't everyone suffer because of the Quebec provincial government? I wouldn't be surprised if somehow people in Argentina are affected somehow by those guys.

I should become an Candian English videogame bootlegger. My hatred of the Toronto Maple Leafs should allow me to slip into Montreal undetected.

"Is Québec still trying to become independent?"

Only when they want something from the federal government. I've suggested that BC and Alberta should try the same tactic.

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Originally posted by: Ian Sane
"Is Québec still trying to become independent?"

Only when they want something from the federal government. I've suggested that BC and Alberta should try the same tactic.

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::blanches::

Oh Canada...

Le Parti Québécois is still trying to achieve independancy, but the timing is just not right, that's why they aren't pushing it right now. That law is really retarded, I mean, it's nice for kids who generally only speaks french, but that's about it. I'm also afraid the extra development costs generated by the translation of the software will be handed down to the consumer. This is annoying considering that games are already more expensive in Canada then they are in the US, wich is a nonsense considering how the US and Canadian dollar are currently on par with one another.

Funny wannabe frenchies.

Does this mean making french games for Quebec isn't worth it? So companies will just forego the French North American version completely and fly around Quebec as some kind of center of non-entertainment.

Ian's scheme may work afterall.

edit: whoops

Maybe when I'm over in Quebec getting my beer for cheaper, I'll bring over a few games to bootleg.

Don't look too hard into this one, guys. Most "top games" are already translated into French for the French market. It's just convenient for publishers to release one version of a game across the United States and Canada. All that will likely happen is that Quebec will get their French/English version at the same time the game is released in France. Not that big of a deal for publishers.

Besides, it's not like Quebecers can't just drive over to Ontario and get the game at the same time as everyone else. Yeesh.

"Besides, it's not like Quebecers can't just drive over to Ontario and get the game at the same time as everyone else. Yeesh. "

You do know Quebec is like the size of Texas, right? It's not like some rinky-dinky province that takes an hour to drive across. If you lived in the center of Quebec what the hell are you going to do?

Give up gaming.

Order from another province?

I'm concerned about the quality of these translations. I wonder if we'll get France french version or an actual Québec localization? I stopped going to the movies in french because the France dubbing we had in some of the major movies was awful.

WindyMan, that would basically mean Quebec would have to wait longer to get games than the rest of Canada. Canada almost always gets games the same day as the United States, while Europe (which includes France) usually get games several months later. At the very least, this would cause RPGs and other text/voice heavy games to be released later in Quebec (and maybe Canada in general if a company doesn't want to make two different versions for Canada).

The best solution for consumers is to just order the games online, or move out of Quebec.

This was just posted on NeoGAF by a poster named "Meta Knight":

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just heard an interesting info from someone working at Beenox (owned by Activision):

The deal (it's not a law, it's a deal) was made between the Quebec government and the Entertainment Software Association of Canada. The following companies are part of ESA Canada: Activision Incorporated, Buena Vista Games, Electronic Arts, Microsoft Canada, Nintendo of Canada Ltd., Sony Computer Entertainment, Take-Two Interactive, THQ, Ubisoft Entertainment, Inc. et Vivendi Games, Inc.

Details will be revealed mid-september.

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It takes 5 hours to go to ottawa from quebec city. I will now do my buisness at amazon.ca

Soooo, how does this affect games with different publishers in North America and Europe? Will this affect the publishing "border lines" for a contract?

I don't think that has any effect at all. Whoever is publishing a game in North America will be responsible (i.e. Majesco would have to translate the Cooking Mama games, wheras the games European publisher 505 Games would have nothing to do with it).

I could be wrong, but Quebec looks larger than Texas to me. At least in comparison to the rest of Canada compared to how Texas is to the rest of the States. And I'm sure Canada has more landmass than the States. Of course, I could be wrong, whatever.

I remember the Quebecois making a big deal about this back when Pokémon started. They wanted French names for them or the games would be banned or something. I guess the accent aigu on the e (é) wasn't enough to fool them. You don't see us complaining that "Pikachu" and "Pachirisu" and "Togepi" are still in Japanese...but I can still understand, for the names that are portmanteaus (I like that word).

Just stick Es on things and reverse the order of some words. I'm fairly confident that "Pokémon: Diamond Version" is "Pokémon: Versione Diamonde". :P

"Just stick Es on things and reverse the order of some words. I'm fairly confident that "Pokémon: Diamond Version" is "Pokémon: Versione Diamonde". :P"

Don't forget to put "Le" in front of everything like in Pepé Le Pew cartoons.

"I wonder if we'll get France french version or an actual Québec localization?"

I'd imagine France French will be cheaper since they already have to do that for France which is a bigger market.

European forumers do UK or Australian games have a different English translation or do they appear to be in American English?

Now no one put the idea in the Canadian government's head that we need Canadian English translations. I don't want anything delayed just so that "honor" is spelled "honour".

I think most games come to the UK in US English if such a version already exists. If the game comes straight to Europe from Japan (or is made in Europe) or has a different publisher it might get a different translation.