Paris Presses Start on Six Days of Free Video-Game Culture

The 14th edition of Press Start brings free playable games, developer talks, workshops, and retro preservation discussions to Paris through September 28.

Paris has opened the 14th edition of Press Start, the Bibliothèque publique d'information's free video-game festival, with the 2026 programme running from September 23 through 28. The Bpi is currently operating from 40 avenue des Terroirs de France in Paris's 12th arrondissement while the Centre Pompidou is closed, but the temporary surroundings have not persuaded organisers to shrink the ambition.

This year's compact six-day edition mixes playable games with workshops, developer and industry meetings, Twitch broadcasts, creative sessions and an escape-room experience. Some activities require registration, but general admission remains free. That makes Press Start particularly interesting from a preservation and game-culture perspective: it treats games as something to discuss, make and understand rather than merely products lined up for consumption.

After an unusually extended four-month 2025 edition, the festival has returned to a concentrated format in which visitors can move between hands-on play and conversations about the stories, techniques and people behind games. Retro enthusiasts should find plenty to appreciate in that broader historical framing even though the programme spans gaming across eras.

France has a formidable history of treating videogames as culture rather than apologising for them. Press Start continues that tradition—and, pleasingly, nobody needs to insert a two-euro coin to enter.