Abstract

This is the third chapter of my book 'The business and culture of digital games. Gamework/Gameplay'. The chapter begins by situating digital games both conceptually and statistically within the wider economic and media environment. It considers how digital games might fit into what is commonly known within media studies as the cultural industries and analyses the growing economic significance of the global games industry as compared with other cultural industries in major markets. It then moves on to examine the structure of the digital games industry and its key sub-sectors. Finally, the chapter examines two important trends in the industry, namely vertical integration and licensing. While some of the statistics are now out of date I think it provides some useful analysis on the structure of the industry.