Gaming

The Gaming Industry

The video game industry is the economic sector involved in the development, marketing, and monetization of video games. It encompasses dozens of job disciplines and its component parts employ thousands of people worldwide.

History

• The Magnavox Odyssey was the first video game console, released in 1972.
• Pong
• In October 1958, Physicist William Higinbotham created what is thought to be the first video game. It was a very simple tennis game, similar to the classic 1970s video game Pong, and it was quite a hit at a Brookhaven National Laboratory open house.
• Golden age of arcade video games (1978–1982)
• Space Invaders
• Pong
• Computer Space
• The first virtual reality headset was created in 1968 by American computer scientist Ivan Sutherland and his student, Bob Sproull.
• Consumer virtual reality headsets were first released by video game companies in the early-mid 1990s. Beginning in the 2010s, next-generation commercial tethered headsets were released by Oculus (Rift), HTC (Vive) and Sony (PlayStation VR), setting off a new wave of application development.

Social Contexts

• As computer and video games have exponentially increased in popularity over time, they have had a significant influence on popular culture. Video game culture has also evolved over time, hand in hand with internet culture and the increasing popularity of mobile games. Many people who play video games identify as gamers, which can mean anything from someone who enjoys games to someone who is passionate about it. 
• As video games become more social with multiplayer and online capability, gamers find themselves in growing social networks. Playing video games can both be entertainment as well as competition, as a new trend known as electronic sports is becoming more widely accepted. Today, video games can be seen in social media, politics, television, film, music and YouTube.

Economic Contexts

• Microsoft says there are more than two billion gamers around the world, and they're all a part of a rapidly growing global community. As an industry, video games generated $119.6 billion in revenue during 2018, according to SuperData.
• Tetris is currently the most lucrative video game of all time, having grossed 500 million+  since its initial release date in June 6, 1984 (Elektronika 60, USSR)
• Minecraft is a close second
• Gaming producers could make money beyond the point-of-purchase through in-app/game purchases for things such as bonus content etc.

Key Words

Platforms - a computer system specially made for playing video games; a console
RPG - role-playing games
FPS - first-person shooter
MMORPG - massively multiplayer online role-playing game
Sandbox - a sandbox is a style of game in which minimal character limitations are placed on the gamer, allowing the gamer to roam and change a virtual world at will
Free Roam - allowing the player to move freely through a virtual world and/or choose the game narrative and objectives at will; Open World.
Avatar - personalized graphical illustration that represents a computer user, or a character or alter ego that represents that user
Beta - the beta version of a game is as close to perfect as the company can make it, but any bugs, glitches or other issues discovered in beta testing will usually be addressed before the game's official release.
Steam - Steam is a multi-player platform developed by Valve Corporation. It is used to distribute games and related media online.
Acquisition - process of acquiring a company to build on strengths or weaknesses of the acquiring company. A merger is similar to an acquisition but refers more strictly to combining all of the interests of both companies into a stronger single company. (Minecraft buying Mojang)
Prosumption - refers to the process of both production and consumption of computer games. The players are both the producers and consumers.