President Emmanuel Macron announced plans for a new international video game festival during his speech at the Lumière Summit in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. He described the event as a "major global meeting of creation," drawing comparisons to the Cannes Film Festival for cinema or the Angoulême International Comics Festival for graphic novels. France already hosts the Paris Games Week, while Germany hosts Gamescom in Cologne, one of the largest video game events in Europe. Macron emphasized that video games are a vital part of modern culture and should be included in France’s broader cultural policies, often referred to as the "cultural exception." The French video game industry is a significant economic force, generating 6 billion euros in revenue annually and employing 10,000 people directly across 575 studios, according to the National Video Game Union. Cities like Montpellier are under consideration to host the new festival, as they are home to major studios such as Ubisoft and Sandfall, which created the popular game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Reports suggest the government has approached Montpellier with the goal of holding the first edition in the summer of 2027. The Paris Games Week, held each autumn, is already evolving into a major cultural event, featuring nighttime concerts and announcements from popular influencers. A new international video game festival could further establish France as a global hub for the industry and potentially challenge Gamescom, which saw record attendance in 2026 with over 1,100 participants. That event also marked the first time a German federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, attended. Meanwhile, E3, once the premier global video game event, permanently closed in 2023, leaving a gap in the international calendar. Industry professionals have generally welcomed the initiative, though specific details like the budget, organizer, or exact date remain unclear. Nicolas Vignolles, general director of the SELL, which organizes the Paris Games Week, expressed support for any efforts to promote video games, while waiting to see how major international publishers might participate in the new festival.