France Offers Grants For Game Makers 47
vasqzr writes "According to a BBC News article, if you come up with a good idea for a video game in France, you could get a helping hand from the state." The article elaborates: "The French Government is offering four million euros [$4.5 million] to help aspiring game developers turn their ideas into reality." But not everybody can just purloin the money: "The government will pay for up to 40% of the cost... but there are strings attached... to get a slice of the cash, firms have to be French and the work developing an idea must be done in France itself" and apparently, the content of the game is important too, as "...the French Government... will not hand out grants for violent or pornographic games."
Free game: French Army (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Free game: French Army (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Free game: French Army (Score:2)
C'mon Mods; lighten up a little. This is funny.
One word... (Score:5, Funny)
they make a good point (Score:3, Funny)
Nonviolent games. (Score:4, Funny)
PacMan was violent. And Pacman has an eating disorder.
Pong. Those horrible little lines smash that poor speck of light on the screen. That poor speck!
Any sports games are violent. And they cause violence.
Even Barbie games are totally violent.
And has anyone here played Aladdin for Sega Genesis? Geez. That was the roughest G-rated game I've ever played.
Even Tetris is violent the way I play it.
I can't think of one nonviolent game. So I guess these French guys want to not only cash in on the gaming industry, but they want to become famous by creating the first nonviolent video game!
What will they call it?
Clever Paint Drying 2005!
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Nonviolent games. (Score:2, Interesting)
i guess this law will help firms like Ubi Soft (Rayman and many other games for children), or Eden Studios (VRally).
and btw, here is another quote about pac man
"Computer games don't affect kids; I mean if Pac-man affected us as kids we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive, electronic music." -Kristian Wilson, Nintendo, Inc, 1989
Re:Nonviolent games. (Score:1)
"French Foreign Policy"
Hah Hah! (Score:1)
Funny how Ubisoft became so dominant without such a program.
Non-english speaking movies (Score:2)
Re:Non-english speaking movies (Score:1)
Re:Hah Hah! (Score:2)
Re:Meanwhile here in the usa... sugarbitch prophet (Score:2)
Re:Meanwhile here in the usa... sugarbitch prophet (Score:2)
Re:Meanwhile here in the usa... sugarbitch prophet (Score:2)
Re:Meanwhile (Score:2, Insightful)
Good Idea (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Good Idea (Score:4, Informative)
Anyway, the short of it is that there IS money out there from the Canadian government. You just have to know how to get it, and the money isn't JUST for tech companies-- it's for any small business starting up.
another failed attempt at humor (Score:4, Funny)
Give me a Freedom Grant! (Score:3, Funny)
Send me an e-mail....oops, that 18 letter french word for e-mail.... and let me know.
In violation of the law (Score:3, Informative)
This is against EU laws, which prohibits governments supporting local companies, to promote competition across the EU (Article 87 of the Treaty Establishing The European Community).
If the french would do this, they would face stiff penalties.
Not enough money (Score:2)
They could put the money into small developers who are just getting started, but this won't help serious development houses over the tough times.
Developers in Finland can also apply for money from the government, from organizations like TEKES [tekes.fi]. The percentage of support is up to 50% and the pool is many times larger than what the French government offers, in a coun
Re:It's the labor laws! (Score:1)
Bullshit. It may be an accepted cultural practice of the game dev industry, but it's not *necessary*.
Intelligent engineering practices and less-insane expectations about product cycles would dramatically improve the situation.
Yes, I formerly worked for a game company, and the sheer lack of professionalism was astonishing, and the 100-hour weeks were the way people made up for it...
The opposite of what French games need (Score:2)
Handing out grants is just going to make French games more conservative because the value of the games are going to be judged by government officials. I expect t
Re:The opposite of what French games need (Score:2, Interesting)
And your point with this comment is? I agree with your concerns expressed in the rest of your comment, but I like adventure games. So do a lot of others. Thinking about it, of the games I've played in the last 6 months or so, 4 of them happen to be from French companies. That would be more than any other country over that time. But hey, I mostly like adventure games, of which there have been some decent
The Game Plan (Score:2)
Phase 2: Design a crappy nonviolent video game.
Phase 3: ???
Phase 4: Well, there's no profit, but you just took a French government handout and turned it into screaming fast computers and large flat-panel monitors. Do the happy dance!
france (Score:1, Flamebait)
I then heard a few minutes later, that France was "prepared to surrender" to "whomever is at fault".
hrmm (Score:1)
non violent game idea... (Score:2)