The Strength of Direct Ties: Evidence from the Electronic Game Industry

We analyze the economic effects of a developer’s connectedness in the electronic game industry. Knowledge spillovers between developers should be of special relevance in this knowledge-based industry. We calculate measures for a developer’s connectedness to other developers at multiple points in time. In a regression with developer, developing firm, publishing firm, and time fixed effects, we find that the number of a developer’s direct ties, i.e., common past experience, has a strong effect on both a game’s revenues and critics’ scores. The intensity of indirect ties makes no additional contribution to the game’s success.network analysis; game industry; knowledge spillovers

From Playability to a Hierarchical Game Usability Model

This paper presents a brief review of current game usability models. This leads to the conception of a high-level game development-centered usability model that integrates current usability approaches in game industry and game research.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figur

Winter is Still: An Analysis of the Chinese Game Industry

This capstone essay aims to analyze the current situation of the game industry in China. Most of the data has been collected from databases, newspapers, interviews, journals and governments reports. This essay especially addresses China’s current game industry strengths and limitations to position it for the future. This essay clarifies the challenges of game industry in innovation based on the scale of companies. My perspective also considers the continuous development of China’s game industry as well as the conflict between the teenagers and government restriction towards games. Meanwhile, the opportunities of the game industry are based on two unique aspects – the government restriction can help to control the amount of China-made games shifting from quantity to quality; and the rising live-streaming platform that can be used as a new promotion channel. Chinese game industry is still in its initial stage of development and has insufficient competitiveness with foreign game industries. However, the huge population market and the renewal of ideas that have made this industry still have great value and room for growth. The essay will help to fill in the blanks of a comprehensive conclusion of game industry in China, which helps the game developers, game lovers and related scholars to have a new respective to analyze on the games industry

Network governance work: evidence from the video game industry

Many call for research invites for further investigation of the underlying processes, practices and specificities of governance in the network context. Through an examination of what governance involves and how does it occur in a French cluster of video game companies, our multimethod study provide useful insights in the functions and purposes of governance in an inter-organizational and collaborative context, the main tools and mechanisms that are being used and the structure supporting these purposes and mechanisms. Our findings shed also light upon the processual nature of governance in network context. Governance is a set of processes, or a "meta-process", that are geared toward the creation, the maintenance and the evolution of collaboration relationships and the network as a collective actor. We refer to this process of governance functioning, evolution and continuous (re) evaluation as governance work.network governance ; interorganizational networks ; video game industry ; creative industries

The Strength of Direct Ties: Evidence from the Electronic Game Industry

We analyze the economic effects of a developer’s connectedness in the electronic game industry. Knowledge spillovers between developers should be of special relevance in this knowledge-based industry. We calculate measures for a developer’s connectedness to other developers at multiple points in time. In a regression with developer, developing firm, publishing firm, and time fixed effects, we find that the number of a developer’s direct ties, i.e., common past experience, has a strong effect on both a game’s revenues and critics’ scores. The intensity of indirect ties makes no additional contribution to the game’s success

The Dynamics of Interfirm Networks along the Industry Life Cycle: The Case of the Global Video Games Industry 1987-2007

In this paper, we study the formation of network ties between firms along the life cycle of a creative industry. We focus on three drivers of network formation: i) network endogeneity which stresses a path-dependent change originating from previous network structures, ii) five forms of proximity (e.g. geographical proximity) which ascribe tie formation to the similarity of actors' attributes; and (iii) individual characteristics which refer to the heterogeneity in actors capabilities to exploit external knowledge. The paper employs a stochastic actor-oriented model to estimate the - changing - effects of these drivers on inter-firm network formation in the global video game industry from 1987 to 2007. Our findings indicate that the effects of the drivers of network formation change with the degree of maturity of the industry. To an increasing extent, video game firms tend to partner over shorter distances and with more cognitively similar firms as the industry evolves.network dynamics, industry life cycle, proximity, creative industry, video game industry, stochastic actor-oriented model

VENTURE CAPITAL INVESTMENT CRITERIA IN GAME SOFTWARE COMPANIES : Initial investments in the Finnish game industry

This thesis explores venture capital (VC) investment criteria on a specific industry, the game industry. The game industry is a new, lucrative and fast-paced industry characterised by volatility, unpredictability and a hit-driven nature. The theoretical purpose is to summarise the findings of previous literature on VC investment criteria and discuss it in the context of the game industry. The empirical purpose is to study what criteria Finnish VCs use when deciding whether to invest or not into a game company. To aid in providing an appropriate framework, the thesis includes a section introducing venture capital activities in general and in Finland, and the game industry, its dynamics and the Finnish game industry. The methodological approach of the thesis is empirical and descriptive. The thesis falls into the tradition of ‘managerial-oriented venture capital research’, which approaches VC activities from the micro-perspective in contrast to ‘market-oriented venture capital research’, which has a macro-perspective. The study is qualitative and the data is received via semi-structured interviews. In total six persons are interviewed: five from venture capitalists and one from the Finnish Game Industry Association. The primary result from the interviews is that an experienced team is the most important single investment criterium, accompanied with product and/or business model continuity, market characteristics such as market size, platform or segment, product characteristics such as genre, novelty, appeal, market interest and having a playable demo ready, substantial profit potential and VC portfolio suitability. The team needs to be experienced in both content and technical skills, have game business understanding, have marketing skills, be balanced, have passion and have the ability to execute. Moreover, the importance of the continuity of the product or business model was a new finding that seems to be important to VCs operating in the game industry. Market characteristics seem to play a role in some VC’s decision making, but are not universally critical to all VCs. Similarly, product characteristics divide the interviewees. Portfolio suitability and substantial profit potential did not stand out. In conclusion, the key findings of this thesis can be summarised in that the game industry does not fundamentally differ from general VC investment criteria, but certain criteria are emphasised. General VC investment criteria - the competitiveness of entrepreneur and the team, the lucrativeness of the market, the suitability of the product or service and profitable financial considerations - are all relevant, but the team is clearly even more emphasised when investing into the game industry. Future research is suggested in VC investment criteria in different industries and game industry related financial topics