Inspired by the Césars awards for French cinema, but above all by the BAFTAs, a British ceremony that already has a category dedicated to international video games, the Pégases were born from the idea of rewarding French and international productions as well as the various actors who make video games in France.

While there are already prizes dedicated to video games such as the Game Awards, the Steam Awards and the Video Game of the Year, what was missing was a ceremony representing the richness and technical qualities of video games in France, which would promote this industry that generates jobs and talent, and which in 2018 recorded growth of 15% and turnover of more than 4.9 billion euros, as can be seen from the study sponsored by the Association of Leisure Software Publishers.

The prize awarded will therefore be a Pegasus: this mythological representation was chosen to symbolise the poetic, timeless and cultural innovation brought to bear by video games, recently recognised as an “art in their own right” by the Minister for Culture Franck Riester.

Divided into six specialised colleges, the 500 academics of the National Union of Video Game will choose the winners of each category.

During the evening of 9 March 2020, 17 prizes will be awarded in all areas of creation: Best Game, Best Independent Game, Best Mobile Game, Best Student Game, Visual Excellence, Narrative Excellence, Best Bame Design, Best Sound Universe etc.

All of the competing games were released in 2019 and have already been seen by the public. The selection includes industry heavyweights such as Electronic Arts for Apex Legends and Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, Koch Media for Metro Exodus, Square Enix and Life is Strange 2 as well as Asobo Studio, the French studio that created A Plague Tale: Innocence, which depicts Bordeaux in the XIVth century during the Hundred Years War and the Great Plague.

The Pégases will also showcase influencers and personalities from this fast-growing creative industry in France and around the world. The Pégases support this fundamental movement, in which France has enjoyed success thanks to the quality of its storytelling and design, and its historical and cultural approach.