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Video game industry
The video game industry is a large part of the leisure sector. It belongs to both the tertiary sector, which provides services to people, and the quaternary sector, which focuses on knowledge-based activities such as research and technology. This industry includes the development, marketing, distribution, monetization, and consumer feedback processes related to video games. The industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs worldwide. These range from game designers and software engineers to sound designers, testers, marketers, and customer support staff.
The video game industry has grown from niche to mainstream. As of July 2018[update], video games generated US$134.9 billion annually in global sales. In the US, the industry earned about $9.5 billion in 2007, $11.7 billion in 2008, and US$25.1 billion in[update] 2010, as per the ESA annual report. Research from Ampere Analysis indicated three points: the sector has consistently grown since at least 2015 and expanded 26% from 2019 to 2021, to a record $191 billion; the global games and services market is forecast to shrink 1.2% annually to $188 billion in 2022. Video games now compete with movies, music, and television in terms of both popularity and revenue.
The video game industry has played an important role in improvement of computer hardware. Many parts of modern personal computers were originally improved to meet the needs of video games. The industry has influenced the technological advancement of personal computers through sound cards, graphics cards and 3D graphic accelerators, CPUs, and co-processors like PhysX.[citation needed] Sound cards, for example, were originally developed for games and then improved for adoption by the music industry.
In 2017 in the United States, which represented about a third of the global video game market, the Entertainment Software Association estimated that there were over 2,300 development companies and over 525 publishing companies, including in hardware and software manufacturing, service providers, and distributors. These companies in total have nearly 66,000 direct employees. If 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.
Traditionally, the video game industry has had six connected layers in its value chain based on the retail distribution of games:
As games have transitioned from the retail to more digital market, parts of this value chain have become redundant. For example, the distributor may be redundant as a function of either the publisher or the retailer, or even in some cases as the case of indie games, the function of the developer themselves.
Ben Sawyer of Digitalmill observes that the development side of the industry is made up of six connected and distinctive layers:
The game industry employs those experienced in other traditional businesses, but some have experience tailored to the game industry. Some of the disciplines specific to the game industry include: game programmer, game designer, level designer, game producer, game artist, and game tester. Most of these professionals are employed by video game developers or video game publishers. However, many hobbyists also produce computer games and sell them commercially.[citation needed] Game developers and publishers sometimes employ those with extensive or long-term experience within the modding communities.
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Video game industry AI simulator
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Video game industry
The video game industry is a large part of the leisure sector. It belongs to both the tertiary sector, which provides services to people, and the quaternary sector, which focuses on knowledge-based activities such as research and technology. This industry includes the development, marketing, distribution, monetization, and consumer feedback processes related to video games. The industry encompasses dozens of job disciplines and thousands of jobs worldwide. These range from game designers and software engineers to sound designers, testers, marketers, and customer support staff.
The video game industry has grown from niche to mainstream. As of July 2018[update], video games generated US$134.9 billion annually in global sales. In the US, the industry earned about $9.5 billion in 2007, $11.7 billion in 2008, and US$25.1 billion in[update] 2010, as per the ESA annual report. Research from Ampere Analysis indicated three points: the sector has consistently grown since at least 2015 and expanded 26% from 2019 to 2021, to a record $191 billion; the global games and services market is forecast to shrink 1.2% annually to $188 billion in 2022. Video games now compete with movies, music, and television in terms of both popularity and revenue.
The video game industry has played an important role in improvement of computer hardware. Many parts of modern personal computers were originally improved to meet the needs of video games. The industry has influenced the technological advancement of personal computers through sound cards, graphics cards and 3D graphic accelerators, CPUs, and co-processors like PhysX.[citation needed] Sound cards, for example, were originally developed for games and then improved for adoption by the music industry.
In 2017 in the United States, which represented about a third of the global video game market, the Entertainment Software Association estimated that there were over 2,300 development companies and over 525 publishing companies, including in hardware and software manufacturing, service providers, and distributors. These companies in total have nearly 66,000 direct employees. If 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.
Traditionally, the video game industry has had six connected layers in its value chain based on the retail distribution of games:
As games have transitioned from the retail to more digital market, parts of this value chain have become redundant. For example, the distributor may be redundant as a function of either the publisher or the retailer, or even in some cases as the case of indie games, the function of the developer themselves.
Ben Sawyer of Digitalmill observes that the development side of the industry is made up of six connected and distinctive layers:
The game industry employs those experienced in other traditional businesses, but some have experience tailored to the game industry. Some of the disciplines specific to the game industry include: game programmer, game designer, level designer, game producer, game artist, and game tester. Most of these professionals are employed by video game developers or video game publishers. However, many hobbyists also produce computer games and sell them commercially.[citation needed] Game developers and publishers sometimes employ those with extensive or long-term experience within the modding communities.