What Will Odyssey Look Like? Inside France’s Upcoming Video Game Museum!

A Gigantic Museum for a Gigantic Industry

Spanning 11,000 square meters, the facility will spare no effort, starting with a 3,000 square meter immersive museum that will chronicle the history of video gaming through thousands of iconic games and over 2,500 gaming consoles. Additionally, a 2,450 square meter gaming arena will be set up to host esports competitions, concerts, and conventions. The site will also feature an arcade space to relive the golden age of arcade rooms, a Japanese food court, and a Japanese village complete with shops, activities, and pop-up stores.

The museum will feature the collection of Ludovic Charles, recognized as the world’s leading collector of gaming consoles. His collection, which continues to grow, was once offered on eBay in the summer of 2022 for a whopping 984,000 euros.

High-Level Support for the Project

The Odyssey project has garnered substantial backing. Upon its announcement in 2023, it quickly attracted an impressive 2.3 million euros through crowdfunding, setting a European record for a cultural project. It even received the High Patronage of Emmanuel Macron, underscoring significant institutional interest.

The founders—Benoît Tev Theveny, Benoît de Ruyter, and Ludovic Charles—believe the site could draw over a million visitors annually and create more than 150 direct jobs. However, the journey to realize this dream has not been without its challenges, particularly as previous video game museum ventures have struggled to endure, as evidenced by the closure of the Pixel Museum in Schiltigheim (Bas-Rhin) in 2020, after just three years, due to the impacts of COVID. Moreover, some local officials were not pleased.