"I simply wanted to give you my support and high endorsement for your video game museum project, an active museum, a living city," declared Emmanuel Macron in a video broadcast on the Twitch channel IciJaponCorp on Sunday, November 5. On the same day, the crowdfunding campaign was due to close for the Odyssée project, an initiative launched by the channel's host, video artist and entrepreneur Benoît Theveny (known by his pseudonym Tev) to create a video game museum in the town of Bussy-Saint-Georges, in the Paris region. At the time of the French president's speech, the fund, launched on September 20, had exceeded €1.7 million.
This message to the channel's audience was aimed more broadly at the gaming community and industry professionals. In his video, Macron began by congratulating viewers of the IciJaponCorp channel for their "mobilization," then went on to thank visitors to Paris Games Week (PGW), France's biggest video game trade show, which ran until Sunday in the capital. The two events were not linked, however, as PGW is organized by the industry's main representative of commercial interests, the Syndicat des Editeurs de Logiciel de Loisir.
In his message, the president also paid tribute to French professionals in the sector, which represents "thousands of jobs 600 studios in our country and remarkable schools." The press release also put forward the e-sport sector, highlighting the recent reduction in VAT to 5.5% on competitive video game events. The measure was in the finance bill for 2024.
A private museum for 2026
The idea for a private video game museum has been championed for a number of months by Tev, a Youtuber who also runs a company based in Japan and France, specializing in e-commerce, tourism and communications. Back in February, he was keen to find a place to display the collection of video game-related objects belonging to another French entrepreneur, Ludovic Charles. Speaking to Le Monde, Charles said he owned more than 2,000 consoles and tens of thousands of game boxes and vintage computers, all of which could be added to the museum's collections.
The two men accepted a proposal from the mayor of Bussy-Saint-Georges, a town some 30 kilometers east of Paris, to install their private museum within a real estate project dedicated to sports and entertainment activities. The initiators of the Odyssée project hope to create "the largest video game museum in the world."
According to the local councilor in charge of the project who spoke with Le Monde, the plans for the building have yet to be defined and the building permit should be submitted in early 2024. Built by a real-estate developer, the museum will have its rent financed by revenues from a commercial space themed on Japanese culture, located on the same site, explained Charles. The money collected from internet users should only be used to pay for the decor of the exhibition space, he added.
An honorary label
While there is currently no museum specializing in video games in France, a number of similar projects have been attempted but have failed to come to fruition or to survive. For example, the video game museum in Schiltigheim (in the eastern French region of Alsace) had to close its doors in 2020 and relocate to Belgium. Institutions, including the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (CNAM, National Conservatory of Arts ad Crafts) and the Institut National de Recherche en Sciences et Technologies du Numérique (INRIA, National Institute for Research in Science and Digital Technologies), as well as organizations, such as the Paris-based Mo5, are campaigning for a national public museum for computing and video games.
The high patronage label granted to the Odyssée project by Macron is purely honorary and does not entail any material support. It does, however, lend credibility and media visibility to the project and reflects "a mark of interest from the head of state," according to the Elysée. It can also help in the search for financing: "We'll be there to make things easier for you, to support you, to see this project through to the end," said Macron in his message.
With his endorsement, the French president was making a new commitment to the video game industry. In a message published on X on September 16, he admitted that he had made the gamers see red: He was talking about his statement from June 30, during the urban riots that followed the death of Nahel M, who was killed by a police officer during a traffic stop. At that time, he lamented that "certain young people" had become "intoxicated" by video games.