France has banned ‘esports’ and ‘streaming’ among a host of other gaming-related words, in a move designed to preserve the purity of the language. The new guidelines are designed to prevent anglicized "jargon" creeping into the language, as the French Culture Ministry believes usage of words of that nature could act as “a barrier to understanding” for non-gamers.

Essentially, terms like "streamer’" "cloud gaming" and "esports" have been given logical, more literal replacements, although it is worth noting that the rules around usage only officially apply to government employees. There is no legal penalty for the average French citizen should they employ one of the forbidden terms in their daily life, or while streaming etc.

The group in France responsible for monitoring these changes is known as the Académie Française, which has existed for centuries with the aim of preserving the French language as much as possible. In February they warned against imported terms like “big data” and “drive-in”, and often warn of the degradation of the language driven by English, or more recently American influence..

Fighting the degredation of the language

The nation has worked for centuries to prevent the French language being changed in ways they find unacceptable, and this is the latest move in their continual fight against what they call the “degradation” of the language. With gaming such an international and dynamic area, with ever-changing terminology, it is no surprise many terms would come under the purview of the Académie Française either.

If you’re soon off to the land of the baguette to communicate with some government officials about your Twitch channel or gaming generally, we’ve got a little bit of help below, with a few of the more common terms. Now, you’ll be more than ready to discuss problems with your Minecraft save file on Xbox, or who would win in a fight between Hasan and Trainwrecks…

“Cloud gaming” becomes “jeu video en nuage”

“Esports” becomes “jeu video de competition”

“Pro-gamer” becomes “joueur professionnel” 

“Streamer” becomes “joueur-animateur en direct”