Business of Videogames

Over the course of the last forty or so years computer games have grown from being non existent into spawning multi-million pound industry. Computer Games are huge business worldwide and have extended outside of the games world to influence television, cinema and popular culture in general.

Perhaps the biggest change in the business of games is the amount of people now involved in the creation of a computer game. As an example, the very first computer games were created by engineers as a side project or hobby. Pong, the first game made by Atari, was made not by a programmer but by an engineer, named Al Alcorn. After the buzz that these initial games created from people playing them in bars, it was inevitable that home versions of them would be made and through the late 70’s and early 80’s several home computer game systems were released.

As the technology became more advanced the games naturally became more complex. However with the release of machines such as the ZX Spectrum and the Commodore 64; it became possible for people to learn how to make their own games. Code to make these games was available in magazines, where readers would submit code for people to re create their game. It is from these humble beginnings that several companies were formed in the 80’s. For example Codemasters was formed by the Darling twins, who were both teenagers at the time and after learning how to make games started selling them commercially, enjoying a good level of success.

It was with the release of the Sony PlayStation in the mid nineties which, in my opinion, that the games industry started to become what it is today. Games such as Tomb Raider, Gran Turismo and Resident Evil really helped launch the games industry into a more mainstream focus then previously and helped the PlayStation to become a household brand. As well as this, you could now play perfect conversions of arcade games, which resulted in games such as Time Crisis and Ridge Racer being released for the first time on the home console format, as the technology has finally caught up with the arcade games. The PlayStation is the first console to reach the 100 million sold mark and its success helped the PlayStation 2 to be successful as well.

The costs involved in making a game have risen significantly meaning that it can cost millions to get a game onto the shelves. Enter the Matrix, released in 2003, cost over $20 million and is the most expensive game ever made. This has resulted in studios wanting to play it safe when it comes to making games. This has, ultimately stifled creativity as seemingly more and more of the games released now are sports sims (usually timed to coincide with the start of the new football season etc) or film tie ins, such as Enter the Matrix.

So in conclusion the games industry has grown an incredible amount and there is no doubting that games are big business. With the Xbox 360 already released and new Sony and Nintendo consoles on the horizon, it is guaranteed that the industry will grow bigger. But at what cost? The cavalier spirit of the early pioneers such as the Darling twins and Nolan Bushnell seems to have been lost and replaced by a faceless corporate front, where sequels and yearly updates rule supreme.