Why France Is a Big Player in the Gaming Industry

When you think of gaming, China, Japan, and the United States are the nations you’re most likely to associate with it. The countries are home to many of the world’s biggest gaming companies, including Nintendo, Sony, Sega, Electronic Arts, Tencent, and Microsoft. 

But Asia and North America don’t get to hog all the credit as Europe plays a big role in the gaming industry too. Poland, for example, is home to CD Projekt RED, the company behind huge titles like Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher series. 

The United Kingdom has also given birth to more than its fair share of gaming content over the years. Famously, Lara Croft, Lemmings, and GoldenEye 007 were all created in Great Britain, not to mention Grand Theft Auto, one of the most successful video game franchises in history. 

France, in particular, is an often overlooked participant in the gaming industry, despite the fact that the country is home to several major publishers and has gifted the world with some of the best titles ever released. 

The republic is home to several of the world’s biggest publishers, including Atari, Ubisoft, Gameloft, and Arkane Studios, and houses international outposts of many international brands like Riot Games and Electronic Arts. 

There are several factors that have contributed to France’s ability to level up its video games industry and bag a high score on the world stage, but these ones have been particularly key. 

Long History of Creating Games

France’s successful video game industry goes back much earlier than you think. One of the country’s most famous inventors, Blaise Pascal, was the brains behind one of the world’s most-played games – roulette. 

In the mid-17th century, the French physicist, mathematician, and philosopher had been trying to create a perpetual motion machine, a device that is now known to be physically impossible. While he didn’t achieve this goal, he did accidentlaly create the game of roulette by repurposing the spinning wheel. 

Nearly 400 years later, roulette is still enjoyed by millions of people around the world, helped in part by iGaming companies that have made his game more accessible than ever. In addition to making it easier to enjoy, they’ve created different variants like American Roulette and High Roller Roulette to cater to different tastes and bankrolls. These variants use the same basic rules as the standard European rules but with different numbers of pockets and varying table limits. 

Booming Tech Sector and Arts Scene

French industry has been a powerhouse for centuries and the country was a pioneer in many digital technologies throughout the 20th century up until today. This even included the Minitel, a French version of the internet that operated over telephone wires independently of the internet and offered users many of the same features as the early World Wide Web. 

The country also invented several programming languages, the smart card, and even the first commercial non-kit personal computer, helping to foster a strong technology sector and a thriving tech-savvy population. 

Combined with France’s strong influence in the arts, this made it a prime place to start a video games company as the country has the skills and infrastructure necessary to write great stories and develop them into entertaining video games. 

Economic Powerhouse

There’s no doubt that France is one of the most prosperous nations in the world. While it may have slipped down slightly from fighting for the top spot, it remains firmly within the top 10, regularly trading places with Britain, its favourite frenemy across the Channel. 

Being economically strong allowed French video game publishers to attract the investment funds required to design, develop, and distribute top-class titles and acquire smaller firms across the globe to build up their inventory of intellectual property. 

This has helped many of France’s biggest publishing houses to expand across the Atlantic to both the United States and its French-speaking neighbour to the north. Ubisoft is the best example of this, with seven offices in Canada, four in the USA, one in Brazil, 23 across Europe, and several more throughout Asia and the Middle East. From these locations, the company has pumped out blockbusters like Assassin’s Creed, Call of Juarez, Far Cry, the Tom Clancy franchise, and Rayman.