Raymond Morel
4002 days ago
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This report reflects the findings of the JRC-IPTS study on the Video games Industry, with a focus on two specific activities: online and mobile video games. The report starts by introducing the technologies, their characteristics, market diffusion and barriers to take up, and their potential economic impact, before moving to an analysis of their contribution to the competitiveness of the European ICT industry.
The research is based on internal and external expertise, literature reviews and desk research, several workshops and syntheses of the current state of the knowledge. The results were reviewed by experts and in dedicated workshops. The report concludes that the general expectations for the next years foresee a speeded up migration of contents and services to digital, in a scenario of rapidly increasing convergence of digital technologies and integration of media services taking advantage of improved and permanent network connections. The role of the so-called creative content industry is expected to increase accordingly. Communication services and media industry will co-evolve on the playground of the Internet of services, along with a product to service transformation of the software market in general. In this general context the Video games Software industry plays and is expected to play a major role. The games industry may become a major driver of the development of networks as it has been in the past for the development of computer hardware. "
Table of Contents
Executive Summary 13
Introduction 23
Part I. The Video Games Software Industry 25
1. Video Games: A Brief History 25
2. Video Games: A Definition and Taxonomy 29
2.1 Video games components 29
2.2 Electronic games vs video games 29
2.3 A platform-related classification of video games 30
2.4 Further classifications of video games 31
2.4.1 Content-based taxonomies: the “genre” taxonomy 31
2.4.2 Purpose-based taxonomies: core, serious and casual games 31
3. Value Chain in the Video Games Industry 39
3.1 The main platforms 39
3.1.1 PC games platforms 39
3.1.2 Console and handheld games platforms 40
3.1.3 Mobile platforms 43
3.2 The traditional distribution retail value chain 45
3.3 The main actors of the value chain 47
3.3.1 Games developers 47
3.3.2 Publishers 51
3.2.3 Distributors 55
3.4 The (changing) rules of the game 56
4. The Video Games Market 61
4.1 The global video games market 61
4.2 Market size by platform 64
4.2.1 PC video games 65
4.2.2 Console and handheld video games 66
4.2.3 Online and wireless video games 68
4.3 The value of hardware and software in video games 70
4.4 Conclusion 71
5. Software Layers 73
5.1 Software layers in video games 73
5.2 Operating system and device drivers 74
5.2.1 Operating system and device driver layers: an introduction 74
5.2.2 PC platform OSs 75
5.2.3 Console and handheld platform OSs 75
5.2.4 Mobile platform OSs 76
5.3 The middleware 78
5.3.1 The reasons behind middleware 78
5.3.2 Purposes of middleware in video games 80
5.3.3 Middleware and platforms 81
5.4 The game as end-user application layer 84
5.5 Conclusions 84
Part II. Online and Mobile: The Coming of a New Era 87
6. The Online Games Ecosystem 87
6.1 Introduction 87
6.2 Definition and categories of online games 88
6.2.1 Browser games 89
6.2.2 Client-based games 90
6.2.3 Games in social networks 92
6.3 Some data and prospects on online gaming market 95
6.4 The online games ecosystem 98
6.5 The techno-economic models 102
6.6 Challenges and potential disruptions 106
7. The Mobile Gaming Ecosystem 109
7.1 Introduction 109
7.2 A brief history of mobile gaming in Europe and North America 111
7.3 Mobile gaming: the supply side 112
7.3.1 The mobile gaming ecosystem 112
7.3.2 The techno-economic models: from walled gardens to platforms within the
mobile ecosystem 115
7.3.3 On mobile games delivery and consumption procedures 119
7.3.4 The software platforms in mobile gaming 120
7.4 The markets 127
7.4.1 The business models 127
7.4.2 The user perspective 130
7.5 Mobile gaming market data and prospects. The EU competitive position 134
7.6 Challenges and potential disruptions 138
7.6.1 Mobile gaming: an industry in quest of its next stage 138
7.6.2 Online mobile games, mobile broadband and the evolution of the
smartphone 139
7.6.3 Social and context-aware mobile gaming 141
7.6.4 The ecosystem challenges for mobile games developers 142
8. Gargoyles, Babewyns, Angels, Saints and Demons: Opportunities and
Policy Implications 145
8.1 Challenges and hot debates 145
8.2 The present situation of the European video games software industry 148
8.2.1 Policy intervention by governments to foster competitiveness, inside and
outside Europe 149
8.3 Are policies needed? 153
8.4 Conclusions 156
References 159
Annexes 173
ANNEX 1 - International definitions of software and computer games (OECD, 2004) 173
ANNEX 2 - Video Game Genres Taxonomy (Crawford, 1982) 174
ANNEX 3 - Develop 100 List (Source: www.develop100.com – 05.05.2010) 175
ANNEX 4 - List of middleware modules and producer (GameMiddleWare.Org) 176
ANNEX 5 - List of Participants at the COMPLETE Video Games Workshops 179
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