Global Games Production, Circulation and Policy in the Netorked Era [Hardcover]

In the last decade our mobile phones have been infiltrated by angry birds, our computers by leagues of legends and our social networks by pleas for help down on the farm. As digital games have become networked, mobile and casual they have become a pervasive cultural form. Based on original empirical work, including interviews with workers, virtual ethnographies in online games and analysis of industry related documents, Global Gamesprovides a political, economic and sociological analysis of the growth and restructuring of the digital games industry over the past decade. Situating the games industry as both cultural and creative and examining the relative growth of console, PC, online and mobile, Aphra Kerr analyses the core production logics in the industry, and the expansion of circulation processes as game services have developed. In an industry dominated by North American and Japanese companies, Kerr explores the recent success of companies from China and Europe, and the emergent spatial politics as countries, cities, companies and communities compete to reshape digital games in the networked age.

1. Introduction 

2. Going Global  The Value, Structure and Geography of the Digital Games Industry 

3. Production  Changing Production Logics, Organisations and Work/ers

4. Circulation  Monitoring, Measuring and Adapting to Transnational Markets

5. Going Local  Space, Place and Policy for Global Games Production

6. Conclusion

Aphra Kerr is a leading expert of game industry studies, with rare global vision, encompassing all important market areas. Global Gamesis the most comprehensive and accessible summary of games ecosystems in the networked era. This work is invaluable for everyone who wants to understand how games are financed, developed, distributed and regulated in different parts of the world tlÓ