The Pégases awards honor achievements in the French video game industry since 2020. The awards ceremony, ''Palmarès des Pégase'', is held annually. Since 2022, the ceremony is typically held in the first or second week of March at

La Cigale La Cigale (; English: ''The Cicada'') is a theatre located at 120, boulevard de Rochechouart near Place Pigalle, in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. The theatre is part of a complex connected to the Boule Noire. The hall can accommodate 1,3 ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. The first ceremony, in 2020, was held at

Théâtre de la Madeleine The Théâtre de la Madeleine () is a theater in Paris built in the English style in 1924 on the site of a carousel. The first major success of the theatre came with the presentation of part one of '' The Merchants of Glory'' by Marcel Pagnol. T ...

, while the second ceremony, in 2021, was held virtually due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Background

In 2020, the French created the Academy of Video Game Arts & Techniques. The purpose of creating the Academy was in part to establish a national video game award for the French video game industry to showcase creators and talent within the industry and to promote France as a hotbed of video game development. The awards were to be modeled on the

César Awards The César Award is the national film award of France. It is delivered in the ' ceremony and was first awarded in 1976. The nominations are selected by the members of twelve categories of filmmaking professionals and supported by the French Min ...

, given out for excellent in the French film industry. The Academy of Video Game Arts & Techniques is divided into six colleges representing broad areas of video game development and publishing: the Technology College, the Image & Sound College, the Design College, the Management College, the Publishing and Support College, and the Honorary College. The Honorary College is mostly made up of professionals who do not make video games but still support the industry, such as journalists, teachers, or influencers. A Steering Committee made up of one or two elected members from each college handles administration of the Academy and the Pégases ceremony. The Academy is open to anyone in the French video game industry, and membership is free.

Format

As of 2025, the Pégases consist of 16 categories for games plus two honorary prizes for individuals. Of the awards, 13 are eligible only to games primarily developed in France, though the Pégases does include three awards for foreign video games. The Person of the Year and the Honorary Award are given to individuals rather than for games and their studios. The Honorary Award is given to pay tribute to the recipient's entire outstanding career. The two individual awards as well as the award for Best Student Video Game are decided by the Steering Committee rather than the Academy as a whole. For the rest of the awards, every member of the Academy, of which there are roughly 3,000 members as of 2025, may elect nominees in all categories from the list of all submitted video games. A ballot of nominees is constructed, usually with 3 games per category, and every member may vote for the winner in each category. Nominations are typically announced in early February. An audience award was given out during the 2022, 2023, and 2024 awards. The award for Best Character was replaced following the 2021 awards with an award for Best Accessibility, and the award for Best Video Game Universe was replaced following the 2022 awards with an award for Best Technological Innovation. Starting in 2023, games could only be nominated in three categories plus the "queen" categories of Best Video Game, Best Independent Video Game, and Best Mobile Game. Because of this, a game can no longer win more than 5 total awards. During the awards ceremony, new games are announced for upcoming releases.

Awards

2020

The 1st annual Pégases celebrated games released in 2019. The ceremony was held at

on March 9, 2020. The hosts of the event were Salomé Lagresle and .

2021

The 2nd annual Pégases celebrated games released in 2020. The ceremony was held virtually on March 17, 2021. The host of the event was Salomé Lagresle.

2022

The 3rd annual Pégases celebrated games released in 2021. The ceremony was held at

on March 10, 2022. The host of the event was Salomé Lagresle.

2023

The 4th annual Pégases celebrated games released in 2022. The ceremony was held at

on March 9, 2023. The host of the event was Salomé Lagresle.

2024

The 5th annual Pégases celebrated games released in 2023. The ceremony was held on March 7, 2024. The hosts of the event were Salomé Lagresle and .

2025

The 6th annual Pégases celebrated games released in 2024. The ceremony was held at

on March 6, 2025. The host of the event was .

Records

Most Pégases won by a game

Most Pégases won by a developer or publisher

References

External links

* {{In lang, fr Awards established in 2020 Video game awards Video game events Annual events Annual events in France Annual events in Paris