Quebec Is Banning Super Nintendo From The Province
Nintendo's Super NES Classic Edition, a soon-to-be-released system featuring many of the video game company's most popular 90s titles, won't be available for sale in Quebec.
Why?
Language laws, of course.
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Pre-order sales for the nostalgic console opened yesterday morning, but anyone ordering from Quebec was barred, at least at all EB Games stores.
EB Games/GameStop Canada didn't offer a reason. The company simply said the product can't be purchased in Quebec, reports The Gazette.
Best Buy Canada offered a similarly vague explanation for the lack of Quebec-based pre-orders for the video game system, saying the Nintendo product doesn't "follow the province's shipping regulations."
And that may be true.
Selon mes sources: Super Nintendo Classic ne serait pas vendu au Qc! ( question de traduction) À suivre... pic.twitter.com/ThFr8kyaO4
More context on the Nintendo console's ban in Quebec was unveiled by VICE's tech-section Motherboard.
According to two EB Games employees, the SNES Classic will not launch in Quebec because the console's games aren't going to be translated into Quebecois French.
The two employees, who work in Montreal, remained anonymous in the article.
All video games that are sold in the province need to be translated into Quebec-specific French if they're also translated into (regular) French for other markets, notes VICE, citing a new language law from 2009.
Translating all 20 of the video games included on the SNES Classic would take quite a bit of effort, which is probably why Nintendo Canada isn't making a version of the console specifically for Quebec.
Nintendo Canada didn't respond when asked about the situation, says The Gazette.
The Super NES Classic will be released on September 29th in the rest of Canada, but for now, it looks like Quebec will not be included.
Looks like we'll all need to head to Ontario to get our 90s gaming on.