"Call me the minister of video games if you want--I am proud of this. People have looked down on video games for far too long, overlooking their great creativity and cultural value. Video games are not a mere commercial product," said culture minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres. "They are a form of artistic expression involving creation from script writers, designers and directors." His proposal has both detractors and supporters. The multinational Interactive Software Federation of Europe is resisting Vabres' goals, expressing concern that France's traditional attitudes towards cultural works would interfere with developers' creative freedoms. Games that receive governmental aid, which would come in the form of a 20% tax reduction up to 500,000 euros, would have to be considered artistic by France and would receive creative input from the state. EA Switzerland's Gerhard Florin warned that such a program might create a situation similar to recognized French filmmakers receiving the bulk of governmental aid over their peers, allowing them to lose sight of average consumers. This may be less likely to occur with video games, however; major game publishers such as Ubisoft, Infogrames, and Vivendi necessarily cater much more to the global market than your average French auteur filmmaker.

Unsurprisingly, French game executives such as Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot support the potential move, particularly given difficulties in home turf development related to high French salaries. "Without production in France, we lose the creativity and diversity that this country offers," said Guillemot, speaking to Donnedieu de Vabres' claim that video games can reflect properties of their country of origin. These properties need not be extreme, he noted. "Video game characters will not be required to wear a beret and carry a liter of wine under their arm," Donnedieu de Vabres said. "But we do need to protect what is different in video games produced by each nation."