Apparently, if your game doesn't have French in it, Quebec won't let you sell it. This is probably something our millions of Quebec readers already knew, but one of them, Destructoid reader Mike, was unaware and has been disappointed to find that he can't buy Half-Minute Hero from any of his local retailers.
Mike was looking forward to playing the excellent RPG game and asked publisher XSEED when it might hit Canada. Here's what the company had to say:
Thank you for trying to pick up a copy of Half-Minute Hero. Canadian distribution is always tricky because of the bilingual law that Quebec enforces, so for titles with limited distribution we do not create a second bilingual version specifically for Canada because it's too expensive. Unfortunately, that's what happened to Half-Minute Hero.
Wal-Mart Canada and EB Canada both carry it, but their stores in Quebec may not carry them because we did not offer French bilingual packaging. Our Canadian distributor does not have a relationship with Amazon Canada, that is why they never carry any of our products.
Sorry for the inconvenience, but the bilingual requirements in Quebec make it extremely difficult and expensive for us to provide games to Canada sometimes. Your best bet may be to purchase it from the PSN Store online.
Wow, Quebec kind of sucks. It's amusing to note that Canada is screwing itself out of tax revenue with a law like this, since if Mike buys the game on PSN, he gets to give all his money to the publisher rather than have the government take a slice. That's at least a small satisfaction, although this bilingual law sounds effing stupid no matter which way you slice it.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
4:40 PM on 10.28.2009
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English: Hey Quebec, suck my cock!
Français: Hé le Quebec, suce ma bite!
There's no Canada like French Canada!
Quebec should just become it's own country, or speak English or Spanish. Your in the Americas, those are the languages (that goes for you too Brazil, get with the program)!
The government ALMOST successfully charged an independent gas station owner a fine of $500,000 for having ENGLISH writing BIGGER than the FRENCH writing on his signs. It almost went to the Supreme Court until it got too much media coverage and the bastards finally backed down. Just like how they wanted to seperate from the rest of Canada in a referendum like about 10 - 15 years ago, but the conditions were they would still use OUR currency AND we would still have to SUPPORT them, but they don't have to contribute anything! Bullshit!
@DTOID READER MIKE
If you haven't been able to find a copy or whatnot, Private Message me and if you PayPal me the cash or something, I will personally go out and see if I can find you a copy to mail to you, since you shouldn't have to deal with this bullshit.
@EVERYONE ELSE
That ends my angry rant about that crappy ass province!
I think the point of this article is why are they not getting their distributor to work with Amazon.ca
oh and
@Necros
Charms? How old are you? Montreal is fucking huge man, not just in size. and saying that we were polite is kinda racism; saying that we are all polite, like if we were ONE people... Theres so much different people here, but wtv, I get your point; were not in the US, which mean nicer people ( and nicer looking woman too :) )
Sigh.
Everybody else and their dog does french packaging. IT DOES NOT COST THAT MUCH, BELIEVE ME.
BTW, not a single self-respecting independent game store in the entire province respects that law.
And everybody in the province hates the law as much as you dickwads complaining about the province do.
All signage must have french as the prominent language, even on products. They wanted out of the country, to which I would say 'good riddance', but they wanted use of our army, postal service, etc. Meaning that they didn't fully understand the concept of sovereignty.
Some of the people are nice enough, but there are also a bunch of people who sneer at you for not speaking Francais - even if you give it your best go. In fact, my parents canceled the last two days of their honeymoon to get the hell out of that backwards province.
They also gave us Celine Dion. Need I continue?
No Quebec should not become it's own country that wouldn't be good for Quebec or Canada.
Quebec separating would be rather unfair to people that only speak English living there, and to the Aboriginal people in Quebec.
To the people complaining about having 2 official languages-
Including French obviously doesn't benefit the people that only speak English...
But it's not for you, it's for a large percent of the population that speaks French.
From the charter:
[quote]52.1. All computer software, including game software and operating systems, whether installed or uninstalled, must be available in French unless no French version exists.
Software can also be available in languages other than French, provides that the French version can be obtained on terms, except price where it reflects higher production costs, that are no less favourable and that it has technical characteristics that are at least equivalent.[/quote]
I knew that that was a texan based site, but I didnt think there were actually rednecks here, always thought that these idiots were shooting guns and exploding thing while being drunk outside... gosh US is fucked up, so much hate against people they dont know fuck about... nice... intelligent
Thats right, I checked my notes after ( because I'm studying at NAD, 3d game school in french and english) Sorry for saying false things
But dont hate us if you dont know us, it's just plainly stupid
I think the problem was with the physical packaging rather than the software.
I realize most of the people in Quebec are decent enough, but the culture over there is taught as something everyone should be so proud about. It gets to the point where English speaking Canadians are treated as second class citizens. This happened to me more than once on my last visit, which was admittedly about 8 years ago.
Sorry about your luck frenchies - maybe try to lobby your representatives to loosen up your retarded laws.
Preventing English only text on video game packaging isn't going to tarnish your precious and delicate "culture."
Its like if california asked the have things available in spanish... then you ship some of them to latin america and spain ...
Would a Japanese only game sell well in the US ????
I guess those walls are still keeping foreign content out...
When does the preservation of French culture start being, in effect, elimination of all other culture? Why shouldn't they have the right to learn their native language, if everyone else does? Would it be fair to take English away from Ontario? Should the rest of Canada step in, as an ideally "unbiased" party, to regulate their laws so that they're fair all around? How would you somehow balance the preservation of their culture and heritage with the freedom to not be a francophone?
As a person from Ontario I can say that your comments are invalid. Seriously Quebec is like that kid picked last on the recess softball team.
And for you to go on and basically call everyone hear a pig headed American rally just makes you look more like a snobby elitist Quebecois. Only Quebec would create Bill 101, which if it hadn't been for the notwithstanding clause, ould be unconstitutional. We gave you the option to use that so you guys coukd quit bitching. Want more cheese with you whine?
A new law appeared one year ago, just to enforce that one. Saying that if a game is avalaible elsewhere in the world, in French, it as to be available here, in Quebec. Wich is really dumb when you think about it. At least that one isn't really respected...
I'm just asking for you guys, to stop saying that we are a bunch of pussies... Yes there's some, and maybe it's a majority here, but it's not a reason to say that everyone is dumb.
By the way, I'm playing all my games in english, watching TV and Movies in english. Still, I speak french everyday and I won't die from it.
Thanks a lot. I'm not writing that much here since my english isn't really good... But since this one was directly at us, I couldn't resist replying.
PS : If those laws start to grow stronger or that Quebec just become a Country, I'm getting the fuck out of here >.<
There are stupid people in Quebec, just as anywhere else on the planet. There are morons, racists, extremists, jerks, etc. Some french speaking canadians may not treat english people well, but english speaking people don't always treat french canadians properly either. If you had a bad experience, that's just a one time event, don't over generalize.
The law looks somewhat restrictive, but it's there to protect the culture (because the language is supposedly tightly linked with the culture). The general consensus is that since the Quebec is surrounded by english speaking people, it needs laws to protect it's language. Fortunately, the Internet is safe from that law. It's overprotective sometimes, but it has its good side. Translating the packaging is not excessive in my opinion and may help the company reach a couple thousands more people (French is spoken by a lot more people than just people from Quebec).
I know people from all places and cultures who keep and honour their heritage, but only speak English (with maybe a few phrases of their ancestor's language). Is it possible that without Francais as their native tounge French-Canadians would find *GASP* that they are exactly like the rest of the country?
Heck, I would go as far to say that culture laws aside, their restaurants are better and liquor laws more reasonable.
Christ, god forbid I say that I actually liked the place. I meant "charming" more in regards to Quebec City, but I liked Montreal too. That's not a bad thing. And are you really trying to pull the racist card? What race? I'm talking about the people who live there not being snooty like the common perception is, which is more than other people in these comments can say for their experiences in the province.
I confirm that I can easily buy movies that are unavailable in French even if they are in English, because the law recognize the specificity of any piece of art. They wouldn't ban a painting or an artsy movie because it's only in English... Culture, sometime, cannot be translate in an other language. (However, if a good is made and marketed for the INTERNATIONAL, it should be adapt/translate.)
Are Quebec's laws just way to archaic? Where does culture end and globalization begin? Can the two exist independently, or are they opposites?
I'm not saying it's stupid to protect your language (although I do maintain Quebec can go too far with it), but those laws were designed before Walmart, major US Television networks and the internet. The same argument could be applied to almost any local culture, from the Native folk to the Amish.
The Natives rank up there with the Asian cultures in terms of rich cultural backgrounds, but are now seen as a people to gamble with or buy smokes from. The Amish are using cell phones.
So maybe Quebec is right to make this stand (based on my examples above), but at the same time, people need stuff. People will generally get that stuff whether you make it legally available or not. So why not make it available, then throw a "culture tax" on it you can later spend on a museum or (god help me) local television?
Maybe Australia can get away with a bit of media censorship because of their island/continent status, but Quebec does not enjoy such a buffer zone. I can understand legislating French signage, but why not allow some worldly products in? I bought a bag of basmati rice without a lick of English writing on the cover. Did it have an effect on my proud Scottish/Slovenian heritage? No! But it did save me $5, and made some delicious curry. Like I said - you could even tax the damn thing and build some art or something.
Nothing like a Quebec-bashing story to bring out all the people from Ontario ahaha!! I was so sure that even Saskatchewan had a bigger Destructoid readership than my province. There used to be a lot of Quebecois Dtoiders on here too at one point. What ever happened to people like MEE?? Did the cultural police get them all??