APRIL 1, 2009 • No April fools. A new law put into force by the Quebec provincial government prohibits the sale of new English-only video games if a French-language version is available. Therefore, if a French version is distributed in France, the English version cannot be sold in Quebec. Given that Europe often gets its PAL versions weeks after the English SKUs hit North America, Quebec retailers fear such delays will cause local gamers to purchase outside of Quebec.
Impact: This is an example of a law that could kill a game industry in an entire region. At about 7.5 million people, Quebec’s population is lower than that of North Carolina. Requiring that game publishers ship a title in both English and French versions will likely result in most publishers simply choosing to ignore the relatively minor Quebec market.
