The government of Quebec and the Entertainment Software Association of Canada are "reportedly close to signing a deal that will require all videogames sold in the province to be TRANSLATED INTO FRENCH," according to Games Digest. The move will likely result in more French-language games sold in Quebec, and fewer in English.
12:52 PM * PERMALINK * 4 comments
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Comments:
I think that is great. Just as English is the mainstream language of the US, and I don't want to play games in other languages, I am glad the citizens of Quebec will get to play games in their native language, which is French. Games sold in Germany are done in German and games sold in Spain are in Spanish. This is not really news....unless you are a culture that is being opressed (like where the Estonians and Latvians have had the russian language forced down their throats by their neighbor Russia) and each country should decide its own path, linguistically or culturally, or both!
It's kind of a weird thing, if you think about it. I think the most likely outcome is that game developers will find it more profitable to just not sell their games in Quebec, rather than endure the hassle of translation. English-language games have an audience of a billion people, whereas how many gamers are in Quebec?
Using legislation to force any kind of business to change their product like this isn't likely to end well for Québécois who play games.
Mike Elgan
Dear Mike,
Games are always translated (except crappy ones) so that developpers/editors can make profits. A game sold only in the US/UK won't sell enough. As most French/Swiss/Belgian players don't speak English (same problem for Spanish/Italian/German markets)...
First, It's maybe a great thing for the "survival" of the french languange in Quebec, but game developers will sell their games in Quebec and do the translation only if it's profitable.
Second, a lot of games are not translated in quebecer french, but in france french and sometimes we do prefer playing our games in plain north American english than having to endure the france french accent. French from France always complain that they don't understand when we speak, but we understand them, so for sure must of our games will be translated in france french for economical reasons and this is gonna be shit.
Max, a french speaking guy living in Quebec
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