I attended the Office québécois de la langue française (OLF) press conference yesterday where a new agreement with the Entertainment Software Association of Canada (ESAC) on the availability of video games in French in Quebec was announced. Read the press release here.

To my surprise, I learned that only about 40% of the games currently available on the Quebec market have a French version. I thought that since games are developed for international release and would contain a French version for France, they could be available in French here.

But, as my discussions with several people yesterday proved, it’s not that simple a matter. Broadcast standards are different between Europe and North America (PAL/SECAM vs. NTSC). Also, keyboard configurations are different between France and the rest of the world (as I was shocked to learn when I moved to France in ‘98!). So for PC-based games with key combinations, what may be a convenient sequence on a French keyboard could mean stretching your fingers across the keyboard here in Quebec!

According to Danielle Parr, executive director of ESAC, in an article that appeared in Les Affaires yesterday, this requirement will mean additional work and costs to develop games for the Quebec market. This could delay the availability of games here.

However, we can hope that the additional work will trickle down to Montreal’s thriving gaming industry. Being a naturally bilingual metropolis, I would think that the talents to adapt games to our market can easily be found here. Hopefully, Montreal-based companies will choose to create their French versions here.