Impressed by the success of video games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, French president Emmanuel Macron declares ‘videogames are a part of our tradition’ and declares a brand new worldwide gaming competition

One of many largest videogames of 2025 was Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a French JRPG that bought tens of millions of copies, received armloads of awards, and earned not only one however two separate shout-outs from French President Emmanuel Macron. It should’ve made an excellent larger impression on him than it first appeared, as over the weekend Macron introduced a brand new “worldwide videogame competition” that may happen in France.

Macron made the announcement throughout an tackle on the Lumiere Summit (by way of GamesRadar), a convention the place governments, companies, creators, and “cultural establishments” can collaborate on the way forward for “cinema and the transferring picture.” I assume that final bit is a just-missed translation of “movement image,” as a result of that is clearly what the convention is about, however regardless, Macron used the second to disclose his ambitions for a related-but-different effort.

“I firmly consider that videogames are a part of our tradition,” Macron stated (Google translated), including that video games ought to be thought-about a part of France’s cultural heritage, simply as films and “different inventive endeavors” already are.

“Due to this fact, we are going to create a global videogame competition conceived from the outset as a serious international occasion for creativity, innovation, players, and the trade. The good international successes of French videogames remind us of the richness of this inventive endeavor, this creativity, which can be an trade. We should additional rejoice it and attempt to achieve everybody’s help.”

Macron did not point out Clair Obscur by title, however that must be on the high of his thoughts. There’s actually no larger outwardly French videogame of the second, and as I stated, he is referred to as it out publicly no less than twice up to now.

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However there are an terrible lot of different actually good made-in-France videogames on the market. Ubisoft, headquartered in Saint-Mandé, France, makes fairly a couple of of them, and there is additionally the Plague Story collection, Rematch, Jusant, Chants of Sennaar, Sifu, Stray, and casting slightly additional again, the largest and greatest of all of them (and this isn’t up for dialogue), One other World.

Particulars of Macron’s proposed new showcase weren’t shared, however he did provide some perception into what he referred to as “profound upheavals” in movie, tv, animation, and videogames, together with synthetic intelligence and the arrival of platforms—I think about a reference to issues like Roblox, Netflix, and Paramount if it ever manages to finish the Warner acquisition—that “are remodeling our habits.”

“Confronted with challenges that know no borders, no nation can act alone. That’s the reason, in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France and South Korea—two nice nations of creation dedicated to cultural range and their sovereignty—are bringing collectively those that create, produce, finance, distribute, innovate, and resolve. Our ambition: to forge new alliances between creators and applied sciences, private and non-private actors, cinema, tv, platforms, and video video games. In order that this revolution opens up new potentialities with out homogenizing our imaginations.”

France already has one large videogame competition, Paris Video games Week, but it surely’s potential Macron is envisioning one thing extra in the best way of a cultural alternate program fairly than a business-oriented occasion. We’ll have to attend and see for that, simply as we’re now ready to see what Clair Obscur developer Sandfall Interactive will get as much as subsequent.