Pégases

In 2020, the French National Video Game Union [fr] 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.^[3][4] The awards were to be modeled on the César Awards, given out for excellent in the French film industry.^[3][5]

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.^[3][6] 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.^[7] A Steering Committee made up of one or two elected members from each college handles administration of the Academy and the Pégases ceremony.^[8] The Academy is open to anyone in the French video game industry, and membership is free.^[3]

As of 2025, the Pégases consist of 16 categories for games plus two honorary prizes for individuals.^[9][10] Of the awards, 13 are eligible only to games primarily developed in France, though the Pégases does include three awards for foreign video games.^[3][4]

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.^[2][11] 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.^[12]

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.^[9][13] A ballot of nominees is constructed, usually with 3 games per category, and every member may vote for the winner in each category.^[12] 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.^[14]

During the awards ceremony, new games are announced for upcoming releases.^[15][10]