In November, from the 2nd to the 6th of this year, the Paris Game Week game exhibition was held. And I want to tell you a little about it. This exhibition is not as famous as E3 or Gamescom. But it is the second largest exhibition in Europe after Gamescom.
"Paris Games Week (abbreviated PGW) is an annual exhibition dedicated to the computer games industry, which is held at the Paris expo Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France. The event has been held annually since 2010 by the French organization SELL, which promotes the interests of computer game developers."
Visiting such exhibitions is an incredible feeling. I had such an experience of visiting the IgroMir gaming exhibition in Moscow in 2017. I received so many positive emotions and a free energy drink in just 4 days that I still remember with warmth!
"IgroMir is the first exhibition of interactive entertainment in Russia: computer games, games for consoles, mobile phones and other platforms."
But back to Paris Game Week. Once, talking to my friend from the French gaming media Xboxygen David Gnansia, he said that he would go to this exhibition. I became interested and I asked him a couple of questions when he had already returned home. These questions were also answered by his friend Antoine “Gamer Digital” who was also at Paris Game Week 2022. The photos used later in this article are provided personally by David Gnansia!
Hi David. I wanted to talk to you about the recent Paris Games Week event!
1. Russian Guy: Did you decide to go to this event yourself or was it offered to you?
David Gnansia: I had to go to Paris for personal reason and knew PGW was held. So I thought it would be a nice occasion to go there ! I asked for an accreditation as Xboxygen member and been invited to the Xbox FR party.
Antoine “Gamer Digital” : It was a personal decision. After a two years forced stop, it was inconceivable for me to miss this "Restart" edition, this fair being considered as the geeks' party.
2. Russian Guy: I understood that you were there as an officially accredited journalist from the gaming media Xboxygen?
David Gnansia: Absolutely ! For us, it was an opportunity to meet the Xbox FR team and show our community we were there to cover the event.
Antoine “Gamer Digital” : Indeed. The return of the PGW is one of the major events of this end of year, a media of scale like Xboxygen could not afford to miss the call and we do not regret it especially after seeing the investment of Xbox during this show
3. Russian Guy: Have you been to this event for the first time or have you been to it before? If there was, then in what years?
David Gnansia: I was born and grew in Paris. I had the chance to be part of the first edition as a visitor. So it was not my first time at PGW but it’s been a while since the last time !
Antoine “Gamer Digital” : Except in 2016 when some problems prevented me from going, I have attended every edition since 2014
4. Russian Guy: What can you say about the level of organization and scale of Paris Games Week?
David Gnansia: PGW is not supposed to make world premiere reveals but to promote the gaming industry, especially french brands and innovations. All the main hardware constructors were there (Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo) and big editors as Ubisoft, Bandai Namco, SEGA… PGW is clearly a big event in France concerning video games.
Antoine “Gamer Digital” : You noticed that this edition has the name "Restart", there is quite a symbol behind that. Even if this show is known by everyone, I think that the objective of the SELL (Davcotron: the French union for dev and editors and also responsible of the organization of the PGW) was above all to refidelize the gamers to tell them "Look, despite these two years of hardship between the pandemic, we are still here”. The interest in offering a smaller show was also the opportunity for SELL to see if the public would respond again, which was the case. In terms of organization, tickets were sold exclusively via the PGW website with a limited number of places for each day. This system may have disappointed some, but I think it should be renewed for years to come. For good reason, this system allowed the waiting line to be reduced quickly since people just had to show their ticket. In addition, the number of places was limited. Each visitor could freely move around the show without the risk of bumping into each other. From my point of view, the organization was a success.
Russian Guy: Have you managed to talk to people known in the gaming industry?
David Gnansia: I was invited at the opening party organized by Xbox FR. I was accompanied by a colleague and we had the chance to meet and talk to Alan Snrech, Xbox FR Game Pass Lead. We talked about the specificities of the French market and the fact that main French games were represented during the event (Deathloop, Flight Sim, A Plague Tale Requiem etc). The complete interview is available on Xboxygen.com
Antoine “Gamer Digital” : Having only been able to go for one day, not really. However, I made it a point to meet Marcus (Davcotron : a French TV journalist working for TV channel Game One for more than a decade), a real legend of the video game industry in our country, always accessible and very attentive, it was a moment of pure happiness.
6. Russian Guy: Which companies' stands have you visited?
David Gnansia: I made a complete tour of the event and visited the Xbox stand, of course. I also visited Ubisoft and its nice Assassin’s Creed exposition, Nintendo, PlayStation, SEGA, Bandai Namco, Capcom, Square Enix, Tik Tok, Discord. There was also a corner dedicated to French indie games and another held by the association MO5, where retro consoles were exposed and playable !
Antoine “Gamer Digital” : PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, and Bandai Namco
7. Russian Guy: I heard Paris Games Week brought a working version of the game Lies Of P updated to the next gene. Have you played it? If so, tell us about your feelings about the game!
David Gnansia: Lies of P was indeed here in a playable version, like Pentiment. I did not have the opportunity to play both of them but I watched them running in a working version and it looks very promising !
Antoine “Gamer Digital” : Not tested
8. Russian Guy: I know that you visited the booth dedicated to the anniversary of the Assassin's Creed game series. Tell me what was interesting there and what was not interesting.
David Gnansia: Absolutely ! Ubisoft has created an exposition of iconic objects from the saga to celebrate its birthday. It was interactive : they pretended you were visiting Abstergo’s office while a fake worker (in fact, an Assassin) asks you to solve an enigma. At the end, it would give you a secret code to enter in a computer. It was quite immersive and the concept was nice but it was only 5 min left whereas you had to wait approximately one hour to go in ! (laughs)
Antoine “Gamer Digital” : Not visited
9. Russian Guy: Which company was better represented at the event... Xbox or PlayStation?
David Gnansia: I don’t know if I’m really objective concerning this question, but Xbox had clearly the biggest stand and the best opportunity of showing their actual and next games. They were also located in front of the doors, so you could not miss it ! Sony’s stand was smaller but very classy with it’s blue lights. Maybe the best represented was Nintendo with all its playable cabinets !
Antoine “Gamer Digital” : Of the two, Xbox was the better represented brand. In addition to these games, the company also highlighted all its technological developments related to the accessibility of video games for people with disabilities. Xbox is way ahead of its historical competitor, which was nice to see.
10. Russian Guy: And finally, express your feelings and emotions from attending a gaming event of this level!
David Gnansia: I was happy to be back as the event made its come back after two years of cancellation. The main actors of the industry were represented and that shows they believe in the PGW. The only deception was to find mostly already released games, making the event more “promotional”. The next level would be to have conferences and world premiere to evolve. But it’s still a big chance to have such an event in France !
Thank you David for answering my questions. I am sincerely glad that you were able to attend such a gaming event as Paris Games Week!