Video game industry
When including indirect employment, such as a developer using the services of a graphics design package from a different firm, the total number of employees involved in the video game industry rises above 220,000.
Some examples of these included the 1940 "Nimatron", an electromagnetic relay-based Nim-playing device designed by Edward Condon and built by Westinghouse Electric for the New York World's Fair,[10] Bertie the Brain, an arcade game of tic-tac-toe, built by Josef Kates for the 1950 Canadian National Exhibition,[11] and Nimrod created by engineering firm Ferranti for the 1951 Festival of Britain.
The crash eventually came to an end with the success of Taito's Space Invaders, released in 1978, inspiring the golden age of video arcade games.
[19] The game's success prompted the prevalence of arcade machines in mainstream locations such as shopping malls, traditional storefronts, restaurants, and convenience stores during the golden age.
[38] The arcades experienced a renaissance in the early 1990s following the release of Street Fighter II (1991), which led to a number of other popular fighting games such as Fatal Fury (1991) and Mortal Kombat (1992).
[clarification needed][49] Indie games are not the main driver but significantly impact the industry, such as Spelunky, Fez, Don't Starve, Castle Crashers, and Minecraft, with millions of dollars and users.
[53] The next generations of Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 were planned for 2020, but the video game industry was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic that had a worldwide impact starting in March 2020 due to forced stay-at-home orders by governmental regulations.
[54] Easily learned games with high social interactions were popular, including Animal Crossing: New Horizons,[55] Fall Guys, and Among Us.
Many early game publishers started from this economic climate, such as Origin Systems, Sierra Entertainment, Capcom, Activision and Electronic Arts.
As computing and graphics power increased, so too did the size of development teams, as larger staffs were needed to address the ever-increasing technical and design complexities.
Their salaries can range anywhere from $50,000 to $120,000 generating large labor costs for firms producing video games[62] which can often take between one and three years to develop.
[66] Many individuals have also benefited from the economic success of video games including the former chairman of Nintendo and Japan's third richest man: Hiroshi Yamauchi.
In 2013 Richard Hilleman of Electronic Arts estimated that only 25 developers were working on such games for the eighth console generation, compared to 125 at the same point in the seventh generation-console cycle seven or eight years earlier.
[72][73] However, in 2022, atop pandemic economic fallout including chip shortages, supply chain disruption, and consumers preferring outdoor activities, the industry started to indicate recession with global revenues falling for the first time in twenty years.
[80] They figured that sites such as eBay, which convert used games into cash, compose about a quarter of the UK's trade-in market,[81] but do not keep the credit within the industry.
In some notable cases, these new companies grow large and impersonal, having adopted the business practices of their forebears, and ultimately perpetuate the cycle.
For example, founder Alan Miller left Activision to start another video game development company, Accolade (now Atari née Infogrames).
Activision was popular among developers for giving them credit in the packaging and title screens for their games, while Atari disallowed this practice.
[84] The most popular and effective strategy to counter piracy is to change the business model to freemium, where gamers pay for their in-game needs or service.
The German action game Spec Ops: The Line (2012) was successful in the markets and received largely positive reviews.
Low-cost computers like the ZX Spectrum and Amiga 500 led to numerous "bedroom coders" that would make and sell games through mail-order or to distributors that helped to mass-produce them.
[112] Coupled with quirky british humour, the "Britsoft" wave of popular games led to a number of influential people and studios in the 1990s.
[116] The country is home to some of the world's most successful video game franchises, such as Tomb Raider, Grand Theft Auto, Fable, Colin McRae Dirt, and Total War.
Media publishers like Tencent and NetEase focused on these types of games, growing successfully during the 2010s to become leading international companies.
[127] The industry, like most media in China, is tightly controlled by the government, with strong restrictions on what content may be in games,[128] and incorporation of anti-addiction measures to limit playtime.
Japan initially trailed the United States in entering the video game sector as its companies followed trends set by their American partners, but started to pioneer their own ideas soon after.
The 1983 video game crash that affected the North American market did have small but short-term effects in Japan, as most companies involved in the business were well-established and could weather the disruption.
Nintendo along with companies like Sega, Sony Interactive Entertainment, and Capcom are dominant leaders in the Japanese video game industry.
Nintendo themselves are recognized for having created some of the most positively-reviewed and best-selling video game series such as Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Metroid and Pokémon.
In fact, 12% of U.S. households already make regular use of game consoles for accessing video content provided by online services such as Hulu and Netflix.
