We know the identity of the new president of the National Union of Video Games (SNJV), one of the two professional organizations representing the video game industry in France with the Union of Leisure Software Publishers (SELL). They are Anne Dévouassoux, co-founder of Women in Games, an association that works for diversity in the video game industry, and the Quantic Dream studio, which went under the Chinese flag after its takeover by the giant NetEase. last summer. Since 2016, she has been the production manager of the Kylotonn studio.
By becoming president of the SNJV until 2025, she succeeds Lévan Sardjevéladzé, who has held this position since 2016. The arrival of Anne Dévouassoux at the head of the union is a strong signal in an ecosystem that still has few women within companies in the sector. According to the latest annual barometer of the National Video Game Syndicate (SNJV), there are now only 22% of women in the workforce of video game studios in France. While this figure has increased by 7% since 2019, it is still far too low.
Avoid the “downgrade” of France on the international scene
In addition to the challenge of diversity, Anne Dévouassoux will have to lobby the State to support companies in the sector in a particularly competitive market. Last year, the SNJV and the SELL had sounded the alarm bell, considering that for lack of “ambitious plan, France risks downgrading”with “a worrying standstill for five years in a context of increased competition”. The two unions pleaded in particular for a better involvement of the State, for example through the creation of a Ministry of Digital “full exercise” and mobilization of the “France 2030” plan, endowed with 30 billion euros deployed over five years, to support the sector in the development of new sectors, such as the metaverse.
At the heart of the subjects that tense the ecosystem included in particular the reform of the video game tax credit (CIJV). After long months of blockage, the reform of this instrument of support for French studios had been officially recorded on November 1, 2022 with the signing of a decree by Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne. The new version of the CIJV makes it possible to extend the system until December 31, 2028 and thus to reassure the actors of a tricolor video game industry which generated a turnover of 5.6 billion euros in 2021, according to the SELL.
As a reminder, this tax system allows companies in the sector to benefit from a 30% tax credit on the production expenses of a new game, up to a limit of six million euros per financial year. During her mandate, Anne Dévouassoux should thus fight for the CIJV to be improved in order to help French studios to hold their own in the face of international competition, and in particular that of the American and Chinese giants.