You may know, at ActuGaming, we love celebrating the Francophonie with the help of our AG French Direct, which gives pride of place to French and French-speaking creations in the video game world. Obviously, the French Ministry of Culture also wanted to give back to the French language its letters of nobility, in an environment very dominated by the English language, with terms well anchored in popular culture such as streamer, retrogaming, and so on. . This is why the Official Journal of the Republic publishes today a report of the Commission for the enrichment of the French language on all these English terms, and there is reason to be skeptical.
What are the new French video game terms?
Among these new words, there are equivalences to the most used terms in video games today, whether in the press or among players.
Here is the complete list of terms that are now entitled to a French translation:
- Early Access: early access
- Player Pairing: Matchmaking
- Virtual Items Exchange: skin gambling
- Additional downloadable content: Downloadable content (DLC)
- Online social game: social game
- Video game on demand: Game as a Service (GaaS)
- Competitive video game: esports
- Skill video game: Skill game
- Video game in free access: Free-to-play
- Cloud video game: cloud gaming
- Player, animator, live performer: Stream
- player, professional player, she: pro gamer
- Season pass: Season Pass
- pay to win: pay-to-win
- In-Game Advertising: In-game advertising
- Retrogame video: retrogaming
- skeletonization: Rigging
- Hand tracking: Hand tracking
Choices to say the least… debatable, especially since some definitions given do not really correspond to the terms used, such as that of the game as a service… sorry, video games on demand (why not have kept “game service”?): “ Commercial offer that offers the use of a cloud video game, billed for a one-time use or, more often, linked to a subscription “. Which is wrong, since a game service, although connected, is not necessarily available in cloud gaming.
Between these inaccuracies and frankly astonishing equivalences (we can’t get over “Player pairing”), these choices will make sure people talk. As for knowing if they will be employed, that is something else…