“Did you know that Dune was first a book before becoming a video game? », slips Rima Abdul-Malak over the shoulder of a young boy. In the middle of the Porte de Versailles exhibition center, during her visit to Paris Games Week on Thursday November 3, the Minister of Culture observes part of the strategy game Dune : Spice Wars, from the Bordeaux studio Shiro Games, and is pleased that “all fields of culture are connected with video games”. No question of putting this dynamic sector on hold, assures the minister, who came twice during the week to the show organized by the Syndicate of Leisure Software Publishers (SELL), which brings together companies that publish and distribute games.
After the cancellation of its two previous editions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the event this year respects an attendance gauge. The aisles are therefore less crowded than before, but a very specific population is much more present: the ministers. Sports, digital transition, childhood, youth, disability and culture… In all, six members of the government made the trip to this show open to the public from November 2 to 6, twice as many as during the last edition.
“Interest from the public authorities is exploding”, rejoices Nicolas Vignolles, director of the show and general delegate of SELL. Between publishers and politicians, everyone finds his account. « [Ils viennent] no doubt because they need to speak to young people, and that young people go to us en masse. At the same time, there is a powerful need for recognition from our industry. So it’s great if the public authorities are finally interested in us “, he enthuses.
Extension of the tax credit
Jean-Noël Barrot, Minister Delegate for the Digital Transition, is not reluctant to take the controller during his visit on Thursday, trying his hand at a game of bowling on Switch Sports and taking the wheel of a car Forza Horizon 5. The opportunity to praise the performance of the video game sector, which saw a profit of 5.6 billion euros in France, according to the 2021 report from SELL. “I see that the French have made it their favorite hobby: seven out of ten French people play video games occasionally”he says, using the figures claimed by SELL in its barometer published in November.
For him, the place occupied by France in industry is crucial and constitutes a « instrument de soft power ». So to support the sector, the government announced at the inauguration of the show an extension of the tax credit until 2028: this tax incentive scheme, the rate of which now stands at 30% of expenditure eligible for the production of a new game, is the industry’s main public funding tool. It will also experience an evolution of its scale to adapt to current creations.
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