Franco-German TV channel finds niche in high-brow video games
French-German TV channel Arte is best known for covering cultural events and producing sophisticated dramas and documentaries, but over the past decade it has also been building a reputation in an entirely different arena: video games.
As with its TV programming, the publicly funded channel's video games reflect its focus on culture and liberal causes -- from an adaptation of a story by French author Boris Vian to an adventure game where the main character is a Syrian refugee.
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"It's a way of showing our editorial line to an audience that plays video games but doesn't necessarily watch TV or consume documentaries," said Arte's digital projects chief Adrien Larouzee.
Arte has been in the gaming business for a decade, carving out a niche in "human scale" titles.
"We don't work on blockbusters," Larouzee told AFP on the sidelines of Paris Games Week, France's biggest video game trade show, where it has a stall alongside giants of the industry like Sony, Nintendo and Ubisoft.
Larouzee said Arte was far happier with the "audacity" and "innovation" that comes from working with smaller, independent studios.
"We have the luxury of not having to think solely in terms of market share or commercial success," he said.
"We look for projects that are most compatible with our editorial strategy and those that we are able to support financially, editorially and humanely."
The channel, funded by TV licences levied in France and Germany, is finding an audience.
Arte has 17 co-productions with independent studios under its belt, its games being lauded at specialist festivals and praised by users.
It all started in 2013 with "Type:Rider", a platform and puzzle game where the player bounces through landscapes
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