structure of computer game industry

The Structure of The Computer Game Industry

The computer game industry is the economic sector involved with the development, marketing and sales of computer games. It creates dozens of job disciplines and employs thousands of people worldwide.

There are complex interactions of the various companies. A company focused on one of these areas may also be active in others. Publishers often own all or part of a development or distribution company and the hardware manufacterers all act as publishers for their own 1st party products. This means that an independent development company seeking to do business with a publisher may actually be approaching the owner of one of their main competitors.

 Two publishers who compete in one territory can end up working together (one may distribute the others games) in another territory. Because of this it is very important to understand the existing global relationships when doing business within the games industry.

•  The computer and video game industries have grown from focused markets to mainstream.
• Sound cards were developed for addition of digital-quality sound to games and only later improved for music and audiophiles.
• Early on, graphics cards were developed for more colors and later they were developed for  games.
•  Modern games are among the most demanding of applications on PC resources. Many of the high-powered computers are purchased by gamers who want the fastest equipment to power the latest cutting-edge games.

 Game industry value chain

1. Capital and publishing layer: involved in paying for development of new titles and seeking returns through licensing of the titles.
2. Product and talent layer: includes developers, desginers and artists, who may be working under individual contracts or as part of in-house development teams.
3. Production and tools layer: generates content production tools, game development middleware, customizable game engines, and production management tools.
4. Distribution layer:  involved in generating and marketing catalogs of games for retail and online distribution.
5. Hardware layer: or the providers of the underlying platform, which may be console-based, accessed through online media, or accessed through phones. This layer now includes non-hardware platforms such as virtual machines (e.g. Java or Flash), or software platforms such as browsers or even further Facebook, etc.
6. End-users layer: or the users/players of the games.
   
   
   
   
   6. The UK industry
      
   7. The third largest in the world in terms of developer success and sales of hardware.
   8. Fourth largest in terms of people employed.
   9. The country houses many of the world's most successful franchises.
   10. Before the tax relief was introduced there was a fear that the UK games industry could fall behind other leading game industries around the world such as France and Canada.
       
       
   
   
   More info on:
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_industry