It uses case studies of companies including Nintendo, Sega, and Electronic Arts to unpack key developments in the industry’s development. In addition, the book offers corporate profiles of a range of key players in the software development, software publishing, and hardware manufacturing sectors which provide lists of key franchises as well as benchmark financial and employment data. Among these are GameStop, Valve, and Walt Disney. The impact of digital distribution, casual gaming, microchip manufacture, mobile phones, details and connections with other media industries is considered. It provides a broad range of data on international audiences, historical data on salaries and employment, a discussion of ratings systems internationally, and brings together economic data to both clarify the state of the mainstream industry and to suggest key challenges for its future.
The book is due out on August 8 in the United Kingdom and August 22 in the United States in both paperback (ISBN 978-1844573172) and hardcover (ISBN 978-1844573189) formats.
The Video Game Business is published as part of the International Screen Industries series from BFI and Palgrave-Macmillan. You can view the Table of Contents and the index here
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