14 years after Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk presented US President Barack Obama with a copy of The Witcher 2 as an official diplomatic gift, French President Emmanuel Macron is getting in on the "recognizing the cultural value of videogames" action. No, he hasn't added Donald Trump to his Steam friends list, but he did take a moment out of his surely-busy day to shout out French development studio Sandfall Interactive for its big success with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33.
"A million copies and to date, one of the best-rated games in history: and yes, it's French!" Macron wrote on Instagram (Google translated). "Congratulations to Sandfall Interactive and all the creators of Expedition 33. You are a shining example of French audacity and creativity."
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is indeed a hit, both critically and commercially: Concurrent player counts have hovered around 100,000 on Steam alone in the week since its release, and that 92% aggregate score on Metacritic is a number a lot of developers can only dream of. The game surpassed one million copies sold just three days after it launched.
But, like Tusk's diplomatic gift, the real significance of Macron's statement—and whether he wrote it himself or it was fired off by an anonymous intern is irrelevant, it's up on his verified account—is the recognition that videogames matter. "Games are for kids" is cliche, but it's also a frustratingly persistent point of view, as is their purported dangers to that same young crowd: It was literally less than three weeks ago that US House Speaker Mike Johnson used the scourge of videogames to justify cuts to Medicaid, a health insurance program for people with low incomes. Current US President Donald Trump also blamed videogames for fuelling a violent real-world culture in his first term—more than once.
Particularly in that light, it's nice to see another major head of state throw a public thumbs-up to videogames. And this isn't the first time Macron has done so: Just a few days before his Clair Obscur post, he congratulated French esports org Team Vitality after its Counter-Strike team won the ESL Grand Slam at the Intel Extreme Masters Melbourne 2025 tournament, a victory he said "made our colors shine."
Macron has his own less-than-stellar history with blaming videogames for the ills of youth. In July 2023, amidst riots in France driven by the police killing of a teenager during a traffic stop, Macron said there was a "feeling of unreality" amongst the youngest of the rioters: "It sometimes feels like some of them are experiencing on the streets the videogames that have intoxicated them."
Just a few months later, though, he was singing a different tune, saying his intent was to condemn violence, not videogames, which he described as "culture, entertainment, [and] spectacle!"
"They are a field of artistic experimentation, a fascinating learning space, blending all the arts," Macron wrote in a lengthy message on X. "Playing means listening to music, immersing oneself in stories, feeling emotions, and traveling through time. It means exploring visual universes that write a new chapter in the history of art. Competitive video gaming is a sport, an ecosystem, with true professionals, high-level gatherings, and international tournaments that mark history, forging generations around powerful values.
"Videogames are an integral part of France. Assassin's Creed and Dofus are creations of French talent. We are proud of them."
J’ai fait bondir les gamers. J’ai pourtant toujours considéré que les jeux vidéo sont une chance pour la France, pour notre jeunesse et son avenir, pour nos emplois et notre économie. Je veux être (plus) clair.…September 16, 2023
