2024-03-07 22:40:15
The Rundisc team said they worked on “Chants of Sennaar” largely in their free time between 2019 and 2023. EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP
There was a bit of the fight of David against Goliath, Thursday March 7, during the fifth Pegasi ceremony. In the role of the giant: Assassin’s Creed Mirage, from Ubisoft Bordeaux. And facing the latest episode of the flagship license from the French video game leader, there was not one but two Davids: JusantParisians from Dont Nod, and Chants of Sennaardesigned by five developers within the Toulouse studio Rundisc.
It was ultimately the latter, a surprise success of the year 2023, which won the prize for best game at the high mass of French video games, in the Parisian hall of La Cigale. It thus succeeds the Montpellier game Stray, winner of the prize in the previous edition. Fascinating investigation game, Chants of Sennaar involves deciphering foreign languages while exploring a Tower of Babel. By also winning in two other major categories – best independent game and best game design – it is the big winner of the evening.
Read also: “Chants of Sennaar”, the game in which you end up giving your tongue to the cat
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But Ubisoft is not coming back empty-handed, far from it. His blockbuster Bordeaux, set in Baghdad in the 9th century, won the Audience Award. And two games from the publisher also gleaned statuettes: the automobile simulation The Crew Motorfest (best operating service award) and the moving story of the First World War Unknown Soldiers: Brothers in Arms (best mobile game, beyond video games, narrative excellence). The atmospheric climbing game Jusant won the award for best sound universe.
Putting creators “in the spotlight”
Since 2020, the Pégases ceremony rewards French video game productions as well as some foreign ones. This annual awards ceremony, organized by the National Video Game Union (SNJV), in partnership with the company Webedia, presents itself as an equivalent, for video games, of what the Césars are in the cinema.
The prices are decided by an academy of video game arts and techniques made up of nearly 2,600 professionals in the sector, who had to decide between 96 games. In return, to hope to win one of the 19 prizes distributed this year, publishers had to pay an entry ticket in the different categories.
A Versailles choreography taken from “Just Dance 2023”, by Ubisoft, during the 2024 Pegasus ceremony, at La Cigale, in Paris. EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP
“Video game professionals operate in the shadows, it’s an opportunity for us, once a year, to put them in the spotlight”, summarized Anne Devouassoux, president of the SNJV, ahead of the evening. The promise was kept since the ceremony largely gave the floor to its guests and winners. She thus took the opposite view of the American Game Awards 2023 ceremony, which largely restricted the speech of those who came to receive awards.
In addition to the congratulations distributed, the video game professionals taking the stage were able to send more personal messages, for example in favor of diversity, encouraging participation in charitable events or support for the many people made redundant in the industry since 2023.
Mixture of entertainment and seriousness
Host Salomée Lagresle, who has presented the evening for five years, was this year in tandem with Samuel Etienne, journalist and host of France Télévisions, who became a streamer on Twitch. The duo wanted to discuss, in a very relaxed tone, the different professions in the sector with the guests on stage. The ceremony, which lasted two and a half hours, was punctuated by humorous improvisations and moments of pure entertainment, such as a dance sequence of Just Dance or an amusing diversion of Death Stranding.
The Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, presented the personality of the year prize to Mickaël Newton, founder of the Loisirs digitales association. EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP
On a more serious tone, two ministers also came on stage. Rachida Dati, Minister of Culture, congratulated “French excellence” in terms of video games and affirmed its determination “to continue to structure the sector”. Marina Ferrari, Secretary of State for Digital Affairs, presented an honorary Pegasus to the game designer Muriel Tramis. This pioneer of French video games, who was unable to travel from Martinique, contributed to the creation of titles from the Coktel Vision studio which marked the 1980s and 1990s, such as educational software ADI (1991), the adventure game Mewilo (1987) or the improbable Gobliiins (1991).
Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Muriel Tramis: from “Méwilo” to “Adibou”, the inspiring career of a video game pioneer
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On the foreign production side, Little Nightmares won the title of best foreign mobile game and COCOON, that of best foreign independent game. Finally, French-speaking members of the Belgian studio Larian Studios came to collect the statuette for best foreign game for Baldur’s Gate IIIrole-playing game derived from Dungeons & Dragons which became the most awarded of the year 2023. The opportunity for a member of the team, in this period where layoffs are numerous in the area, to call all those who are on the floor in “not to lose hope, not to lose faith and not to give up”. Proof that this video game awards ceremony was not just an opportunity to congratulate oneself.
The complete list of Pegasus
- Best video game: Chants of Sennaar (Rundisc/Focus Entertainment)
- Best independent video game: Chants of Sennaar (Rundisc/Focus Entertainment)
- Best mobile video game: Unknown Soldiers: Brothers in Arms (Ubisoft Montpellier/Old Skull Games)
- Best first video game: On Guard! (Fireplace Games)
- Best student video game: Sikaria : A Silent Hunt (Isart Digital)
- Beyond video games: Unknown Soldiers: Brothers in Arms (Ubisoft Montpellier/Old Skull Games)
- Visual excellence: Dordogne (Un Je Ne Sais Quelle/Umanimation/Focus Entertainment)
- Best sound world: Jusant (Don’t Nod Entertainment)
- Excellence narrative : Unknown Soldiers: Brothers in Arms (Ubisoft Montpellier/Old Skull Games)
- Best game design: Chants of Sennaar (Rundisc/Focus Entertainment)
- Best technical innovation: Headbangers : Rhythm Royale (Glee-cheese Studio)
- Better accessibility: KarmaZoo (Games/Return folder)
- Best operating service: The Crew Motorfest (Ivory Tower/Ubisoft)
- Best foreign video game: Baldur’s Gate III (Running Studios)
- Best foreign indie game: COCOON (Geometric Interactive/Annapurna Interactive)
- Best foreign mobile game: Little Nightmares (Tarsier Studios/Bandai Namco/Playdigious)
- Audience Award: Assassin’s Creed : Mirage (Ubisoft Bordeaux)
- Personality of the year: Mickaël Newton (President of the Loisirs Numériques association)
- Honorary Pegasus: Muriel Tramis
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