• The video game "Stray", developed by the Montpellier studio BlueTwelve, won the most coveted prize for the best French video game of the year at the fourth edition of the Pegasus, the equivalent of the César. He won three awards in total.
  • The year 2023 is exceptional for this game that features a cat in an underground city: it had already won the prize for best independent video game at The Game Awards (the equivalent of the Oscars in the United States).
  • Another big winner of these Pegasus, the Bordeaux studio Asobo for the "A Plaque Tale: Requiem", which won four prizes in total.

The video game "Sray" was named Thursday night best video game of the year at the 4th edition of the Pegasus. This ceremony, organized at La Cigale in Paris, rewards the best French video game creations, on the model of the César for cinema. Created by the BlueTwelve studio, based in Montpellier, "Stray" stages a cat in an underground city populated by humanoids and strange creatures. Using a drone, the cat must solve a series of puzzles to rise to the surface.



"Srayon", which has already won this year the award for best independent video game at The Game Awards (equivalent to the Oscars of video games in the United States), also won two other awards at the Pegasus in the categories "best first video game" and "best independent video game". The game, available on PlayStation consoles and on the Steam PC game shopping platform, also appeals to "real" felids: on Twitter, the account "Cats Watching Stray", which lists the craziest reactions of cats observing the adventures of the mustachioed hero, has more than 35,000 subscribers.

"Video games are a source of national pride"

If "Stray" won the most prestigious prize, it is its competitor "A Plague Tale: Requiem", developed by the Bordeaux studio Asobo and the publisher Focus Entertainment, which triumphs over the 2023 edition in the number of distinctions, with four awards. In addition to the People's Choice Award, the game, which follows the adventures of two children trying to survive in a fourteenth-century France ravaged by the Black Death, was crowned in the categories of "narrative excellence", "visual excellence" and "best sound universe".



Broadcast live on the Twitch streaming platform and, for the first time, on France Télévisions' Twitch channel, the ceremony took place in the presence of the Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak and the Minister Delegate for Digital Transition Jean-Noël Barrot. "Video games are a source of national pride," said Mr. Barrot on stage, a "hobby that engages all generations," a "sector that we are committed to supporting" and that allows "to export our culture and values" internationally. "Video games are a total art" that "irrigates the entire field of culture," added Rima Abdul Malak, celebrating the "creative freedom" of the French video game industry compared to other countries such as China.

Video games, France's leading cultural industry

In the other categories, "Elden Ring" (PlayStation, Xbox, PC) was crowned best foreign video game. The "Pegasus" for best mobile game was awarded to "Tales Up" from Periple Studio, an application development company based in Clermont-Ferrand. Nicolas Cannasse, president of the Bordeaux studio Shiro Games, was named "personality of the year", while his studio won the prize for "best technological innovation" with the game "Dune: Spice wars".

The "Pegasus", founded by the national union of video games that brings together French professionals in the sector, have been awarded since 2020 following a vote by the 2,000 members of the Academy of Arts and Techniques of Video Games. For the 2023 edition, 88 games initially competed in 19 categories.

Video games are the leading French cultural industry in terms of turnover with 5.6 billion euros generated in 2021, according to the Union of Leisure Software Publishers (Sell) which will publish the figures for the year 2022 at the end of March.

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