The Bucharest University of Economic Studies [309682]
The Bucharest University of Economic Studies
Faculty of Business Administration (in Foreign Languages)
[anonimizat] –
The Bucharest University of Economic Studies
Faculty of Business Administration (in Foreign Languages)
[anonimizat] –
Table of figures:
Figure 1 – Ralph Baer posing in his personal lab with some of his most famous products. Source: https://thedayintech.wordpress.com/ 12
Figure 2 – [anonimizat] – Chase Game. Source: http://www.vintagecomputing.com/ 14
Figure 3 – Magnavox Odyssey Console Set. Source: https://hackaday.com/ 16
Figure 4 – Atari 2600 Console. Source: https://www.choicestgames.com/ 16
Figure 5 – Emerson Arcadia 2001, [anonimizat] 5200 and the Coleco Vision (clockwise). Source: https://www.gamesradar.com/ 18
Figure 6 – Nintendo Entertainment System (up-left); FAMICOM (down-right). Source: https://www.ebay.com/ 21
Figure 7 – [anonimizat], [anonimizat], [anonimizat]’s contribution 21
Figure 8 – Super Nintendo (left), SEGA Genesis (right) – Author’s contribution 24
Figure 9 – [anonimizat]4 – [anonimizat]; source: https://www.vgchartz.com/article/442352 28
Figure 10 – Best-Selling Consoles of All Time 30
Figure 11 – Nintendo 64 Console (Orange Pikachu Edition). Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/ 31
Figure 12 – Sales of Sega vs. Nintendo on the Japanese Market. Source: https://www.neogaf.com/ 32
Figure 13 – [anonimizat]. Source: www.reddit.com 33
Figure 14 – [anonimizat]. Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/ 36
Figure 15 – Phtoto from Wii Launch. Source: https://guardianlv.com/ 38
Figure 16 – [anonimizat]'s contribution 41
Figure 17 – The first video game millionaire. Source: https://www.oddee.com/ 42
Figure 18 – Consuming media at home due to the coronavirus worldwide 2020, by country 55
Figure 19 – Device usage increase due to the coronavirus worldwide 2020, by generation 58
Figure 20 – Device usage increase due to the coronavirus worldwide 2020, by country. Source: Global Web Index 60
Figure 21 – COVID-19: global video game and console increase as of March 2020 (left). Source: Washington Post 61
Figure 22 – COVID-19: global video game sales increase as of March 2020 (right). Source: Washington Post 61
Figure 23 – Number of Steam users as a result of COVID-19 pandemic worldwide (millions). Source: Washington Post 62
Figure 24 – Increase in sales and downloads of Plague Inc. as a result of COVID-19. Source: Priori Data 62
Figure 25 – COVID-19: Pokémon Go player spending during global pandemic 2020 – $ millions. Source: Sensor Tower 62
INTRODUCTION
From the beginning of the modern era People have been passionate about technology and have made unimaginable efforts for this field to evolve. The idea of interacting with computers and computer systems has always resonated in our minds. If 50 [anonimizat] a billion-dollar industry that annually attracts only companies in the race to develop and make a profit. I chose to select this field for the development of my bachelor's thesis because I have always been passionate about creative innovation and in general the interaction with computer systems. In this paper, I decided to address a diverse range of topics, from the history of these industries and companies that had an important say and made a difference in the market, innovations that radically changed the course and perspective, not only in recent years but since the beginning of this industry, the most famous comparisons and types of video games that have created huge profits and helped young people both to relax and learn in a more attractive educational environment more competitive and sustainable. therefore, given the emerging trend in recent years, namely to replace the traditional education system with that developed in computer systems, I decided to develop an interview with close people to make a statistic on the performance offered by these two options.
In the early stages of this industry, the development of a game could be easily done by a single programmer or a small team of artists in a matter of weeks or a month, allowing the companies with enough time to create as many titles per year as possible. Even some of today's industry leaders such as Origin Systems, Sierra Entertainment, Capcom, Activision, and Electronic Arts started on these platforms. However, with the continuous increase in computing and graphics power, comes the cost of needing to enlarge the size of development teams, to be able to cope with the technical and design complexities. These more massive teams are made out of programmers, artists, game designers, and producers, the salaries of whom range between $50,000 and $120,000 generating large labor costs for firms producing video games that can often take between one and three years to develop. Since high-definition graphics were widely used by the videogame industry during the seventh generation of consoles, great increases were signaled in development teams' sizes, and reduction in the number of high-budget, high-quality titles under development. In 2013 Richard Hilleman of Electronic Arts stated that such titles for the eighth console generation were under the supervision of only 25 developers, compared to 125 at the same point in the seventh generation-console cycle seven or eight years earlier.
Since as long as I can remember, I have always been passionate about video games, meaning that I have been through numerous types of consoles such as all the PlayStation consoles from the very first to the current version, patiently waiting for the release of PlayStation 5, played countless games from the pixelated repetitive versions for the early 2000s to the outstanding ones we encounter in every store, and I could doubtlessly say that I have evolved with them, simultaneously. I have learnt so many useful things and skills because of them and I would be very pleased to educate the reader about this incredible industry and widen their perspectives about how important video games can actually be.
The main purpose of this thesis is, therefore, depicting the long way the video game industry has come by thoroughly describing every stage it has gone through, from the very beginning of this unique art, to the rough competition it encountered and fought with all the way to the giants that we all know and respect today. Not to forget, of course, about the key role that the video game industry plays in the worldwide economy that needs to be explored in-depth.
The motivation behind choosing this topic for my bachelor thesis is the fact that I would like to teach others how infinitely creative the minds behind the games we play truly are, how much effort is put in creating the game itself and to truly emphasize how far this industry has truly come in comparison to what they started with. I would also be very pleased if I could change the minds of those who state that playing video games has no benefits, or give a reluctant person at least one reason to forget about the wrong idea that video games are meant for children, and feel for themselves how truly relaxing it is. Many adults do not have the opportunity to do those things because their free time is limited if not non-existing, but there are some who are too busy criticizing and labeling it to be able to see its true beauty; it is that part of the adult population that I would like to have my thesis read by.
1 LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1 THE VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY DEVELOPEMENT
Until its significant expansion in 1970 due to the launching of the arcade game “Computer Space”, the video game industry had not been met with much significance regarding the commercial point of view, as many saw video games as a mere curiosity rather than a captivating activity. Mainframe computers became available in campuses between 1950 and 1960, which is the change that allowed the curious students to develop games that could be played on them, thus this period in time marks the very first steps in the evolution of video games and the birth of the new monumental video game industry.
PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations), the first generalized computer-assisted instruction system, was first put in use in the 1960s by the University of Illinois on a computer named ”ILLIAC I” and by the final years of the 1970s, thousands of graphic terminals distributed worldwide, which ran on almost a dozen network mainframe computers were highly dependent on it. PLATO is the birthplace of many modern multi-user platform concepts, such as forums, message boards, online testing, e-mail, chat rooms, picture languages, instant messaging, remote screen sharing, and multiplayer video games. Data from usage logs provided by the PLATO system suggests that users spent around 300,000 hours playing “Empire” between 1978 and 1985. The very first examples of a 3D multiplayer game could be Jim Bowery’s 32 player space shooter named “Spasim”, which marked 1973 as its release year.
Atari, a pioneer in the arcade game, home video game consoles, and home computers was founded in Sunnyvale, California in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Its creations, such as Pong and the Atari 2600, were the base of development in the electronic development between 1970 and 1980. Although in the beginning, only organizations wealthy enough to afford the computers and necessary requests to join the network, such as universities and Atari, had access to PLATO, it represents one of the first steps on the technological advance to the Internet and online multiplayer gaming.
Mass production of gaming-consoles and the advent of personal computers were significant markers of the 1970s, along with gaming consoles’ growth in popularity among commercial centers and chain restaurants. In 1975, the creation of a remarkable game named “Gunfight”, symbolizing the first example of human-to-human combat shooter, was allowed by the monumental advancements in technology like Intel’s invention of the world’s first microprocessor. This game brought new styles of gameplay such as using a joystick to direct movement, things that had never been seen before.
The year 1977 marks the release of some of the prime elements of the later development in the electronic entertainment, Atari’s release of Atari VCS, also known as Atari 2600, which was met with surprisingly low sale rate, only 250,000 items in its first year, and later, 550,000 items in 1978. The main reason why the low sales rate was registered was the fact that people were still getting used to other new inventions like color TV, and the price of the consoles was not that affordable after all. When the public got accustomed to microprocessors and adopted them in their home, allowed Atari to release its “Space Invaders” for the Atari VCS console in 1980, opening the gates to a new era of gaming — and sales: Atari 2600 sales shot up to 2 million units in 1980.
Development of the gaming community bloomed at the same time with home and arcade games: between the end of the 1970s and early 1980s, there have been numerous releases of hobbyist magazines like Creative Computing (1974), Computer and Video Games (1981) and Computer Gaming World (1981), magazines that created the foundation of a community in which gamers could engage, the gaming community.
Nowadays, not only do video games not resume to computers as the main device to be played on but on the contrary, they could be accessed on many different types of platforms such as mobile phones, personal computers/laptops, consoles, virtual reality glasses, and the list goes on. The wide variety of versions for as many devices allows all types of users regardless of their material situation to be able to access them, which is shown in the unbelievable constant growth of income that the video game industry has been going through for the last two decades, as shown in the following chart, on the next page.
Today’s economy is greatly influenced and reliant on the sales registered by the videogame industry, some as massive as “Call of Duty: Black Ops”, which registered more than $650 million of income in its first five days from the initial release, achieving at the same time a five-day global record for a videogame, movie or book, beating the previous record-holder, "Halo 3". Today the global video game market is valued at over $93 billion. When it comes to revenue, by the year 2018, the videogame industry of the United States had reached the same level or even surpassed the film industry, both industries having registered gains of about US$43 billion that year.
1.2 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE VIDEOGAME INDUSTRY
The idea of video games has driven people for decades to create a new product, but the beginnings of this industry date back to April 1972. From that moment on, a new industry was created, and no one could imagine how fast it would grow and the extent to which it will reach. The name of the new product was Magnavox Odyssey, and its creator is Ralph Baer, named today the parent of video games.
In 1951, Ralph Baer worked as an engineer in the radio and television field at an electronics company called Loral. One day, the head of the department in which Baer worked gave him an important mission – to build the best television in the world. Ralph's creative and innovative attitude made the difference between a mainstream product and an innovation that would change the world. He came up with an idea – what would it be like to include on the TV that I have to develop a series of interactive games? By doing this, the Loral Company could attract a very wide range of clients, gain a competitive advantage, and develop exponentially. Ralph's boss was not very excited about the change, being a conservative character, who did not want to take risks so that the company he was running did not fail. He did not see the potential of the new idea, and refused it, telling him to limit himself to the development of a simple television: "Just build that damn TV set".
Figure – Ralph Baer posing in his personal lab with some of his most famous products. Source: https://thedayintech.wordpress.com/
Ralph complied with his boss's wishes, so for the next 15 years the world was deprived of video games. If his boss had focused on innovation and quality development, today's video game industry would have had a considerable advantage. Given the percentage, or rather the magnitude with which the industry has grown over the past 15 years, who knows what it would look like today?
In 1966, fifteen years after that episode, Ralph came to work for Sanders Associates, an electronics company. In a banal day at work, during a discussion with another employee, Ralph reiterated the idea of integrating games into a television. This time, he decided to develop the idea on his own, knowing that people tend to fear the unknown and to be refractory to what they do not understand. In the following months, Baer worked day and night on this project. Finally, he laid the foundation for a game called Chase, and got in touch with a technician, and presented him with the schematics he made. He needed his help to create the prototype. Ralph Baer met Bob Tremblay in this way, and between September 1966 and February 1967 they worked together, eventually building a proof-of-concept device, which allowed the user to move a white dot on the screen and to changes its size. Starting from this interaction between a person and an electronic device, which had never taken place before, the two created the first video game in history, its name being the one I have mentioned in the previous paragraph: CHASE. The game works according to the simplest rules and the most basic concept: the two players, each having a white dot on the screen, had the mission to follow and "catch" the white point of the opponent.
It is said that in the development of any action, the beginning is the most difficult part. The two partners have overcome this obstacle, developing the first video game in history. But without the necessary funds, this game would have remained at the prototype stage, an interaction that did not cause much interest among consumers, and a banal algorithm, which could not generate too many sales or an extraordinary profit. Thus, the two started looking for ways to develop and expand their idea, and for that they needed money.
They contacted Sander's Corporate Director, the company where they both worked – Herb Campman. The director was intrigued by their idea, but at the same time reserved. However, he proved his leadership abilities and vision and did not act like his counterpart from Loral Company, sixteen years ago, that is, the one who immediately refused. Herb approved a $ 2,500 funding for the development of this project (R&D), an amount that, adjusted for inflation, represents about $ 18,000 today, by 2020. The condition he gave was "to do more interesting things".
Ralph's success and his dream of creating something revolutionary prompted him to start developing a new prototype, called "TV Game Units". Together with Tremblay, they convinced two more engineers of the potential of their idea, who joined them in the team: Bill Harrison and Bob Rusch. The effort they made and the ability to work in a team, as well as the fact that they shared the same vision and aspiration for development and innovation, led to the launch of a new product in less than a year, which they called "The brown box". The name does not represent a play on words or a metaphor, it simply comes from its casing, made of wood. In 1968 this product was completely finalized, along with the network of circuits necessary to adapt to color TVs, which at that time began to enter the market. The brown box contained a series of games, ranging from the ordinary Chase to Golf, Ping Pong, and Handball. Players controlled the actions through circular-shaped controllers, switches, and later, anticipating the return of simple target-shooter games, a basic light peripheral gun was developed.
Over the next few years, Ralph and his team traveled to many places, working day by day to develop the idea and to increase the quality of their products, sensing that people expect high quality, and only this industry can innovate. They built several prototypes and in 1970 they started looking for a company to manufacture their products. They initially targeted large manufacturers because they believed they would believe in their idea and allocate resources to grow, with the first companies presenting the project being General Electronics and Motorola. However, they did not want to take the risks posed by the adoption of a new product, because the change management was insufficiently developed and their organizational culture believes that it is better to develop the ideas already existing in the market, with which people they have used to be the first to launch a product.
Figure – Ralph Baer, Bill Rusch – Chase Game. Source: http://www.vintagecomputing.com/
1.3 SHORT HISTORY OF THE BIG STEPS IN THE DIGITAL WORLD
1.3.1 FIRST GENERATION – MAGNAVOX ODYSSEY
Finally, the enthusiastic attitude of the director of the marketing department of the Magnavox Company and its vision has made a considerable contribution to this industry at the beginning of the road. Gerry Martin understood the potential of this future industry, and in 1971 Ralph and his associates convinced the management body that video games on television would be the main innovation of the next decades. Finally, Magnavox started production of the first video console, called the Odyssey 1TL200. The new product immediately captured the attention of the American press and the electronic fairs of that period. Everyone was amazed by the mysterious box with which a person watching TV could control the images that appear on the screen, an action that until then seemed impossible and unthinkable. The game console was launched in September 1972, and in just two months, until Christmas, the company managed to sell 130,000 pieces. The product was discontinued 3 years later, and the total sales were 330,000 consoles, as well as nearly 100,000 other auxiliary equipment, such as weapons and joysticks. Even though the console did not offer spectacular performances, it was a major step in the entertainment industry. The 1970s era is what chiefly characterizes Baer's commitment to the videogames business After Atari's accomplishment in making arcade and at home games, numerous different makers, Coleco Telstar being one of them, felt enlivened to make modest two-three game consoles devoted distinctly to their duplicates of Pong. Concerning the circumstance around then, Magnavox discharged the Odyssey 100, a more straightforward, Pong-propelled reassure. Also, it added enormously to a comfort excess that was to prompt the main extraordinary computer game market.
This lack of eagerness for innovation made Baer reconsider his partnership choices as he states: “When Magnavox became less than cooperative, I turned to Coleco and helped them get their first Telstar system into production via an early G.I. AY-3-8500 single-chip device," "Then I got them past the FCC interference tests, which they had flunked the first time around, and wound up getting engineering contracts from Coleco to help them design the next generation of Coleco videogames.”
Figure – Magnavox Odyssey Console Set. Source: https://hackaday.com/
1.3.2 SECOND GENERATION – ATARI REVOLUTION
The second generation of PC and video games saw the arrival of a few consoles as different organizations chose to enter the market; later, the discharges were in direct reaction to the prior consoles. The Atari 2600 was the predominant support for a great part of the subsequent age, with different consoles such as Intellivision, the Odyssey 2, and Coleco Vision also getting a piece of the pie.
Figure – Atari 2600 Console. Source: https://www.choicestgames.com/
In 1977, Atari discharged the Atari VCS (later known as the Atari 2600), yet discovered deals moderate, selling just 250,000 machines in its first year, at that point 550,000 of every 1978 well underneath the figures anticipated. The low deals have been accused of the way that Americans were all the while becoming acclimated to shading televisions at home, the consoles were costly and people were becoming worn out on Pong, Atari’s best-known game. At the point when it was released, the Atari VCS was just intended to play 10 basic test games, for example, Pong, Fugitive, and Tank. Be that as it may, the comfort incorporated an outside ROM space where game cartridges could be connected; the potential was immediately found by software engineers the world over, who made games far outperforming the console's unique planned. The reconciliation of the chip additionally drove to the arrival of Room Intruders for the Atari VCS in 1980, implying another period of gaming — and sales: Atari 2600 deals shot up to 2 million units in 1980.
In 1978, Magnavox released its microchip-based console, the Odyssey 2, in the US and Canada. Philips Electronics discharged this equivalent game support as the Philips G7000 for the European market. Even though the Odyssey 2 never became as well known as the Atari reassures, it figured out how to sell a few million units through 1983. Philips had additionally structured the more powerful Interton VC 4000 console family (e.g. 1292 Progressed Programmable Video Framework) before this. In 1979, Activision was developed by disappointed previous Atari creators. It was the first third-party developer of computer games. In succeeding years, numerous new engineers would follow their lead.
The following significant passage was Intellivision, which was presented by Mattel in 1980. Even though sequentially coming sometime before the "16-piece period", the Intellivision reassure contains a one of a kind processor with instructions that were 10 bits wide (permitting more guidance assortment and potential speed) and registers 16 bits wide. It additionally includes a propelled sound chip which can convey yield through three unmistakable sound channels. The framework's underlying creation pursue sold out in a matter of seconds its national dispatch in 1980. Intellivision was the principal framework to represent a genuine risk to Atari's strength. A progression of television commercials featuring George Plimpton demonstrated the prevalence of Intellivision's designs and sound over those of the Atari 2600 utilizing next to each other game comparisons. Nevertheless, Atari held selective rights to the greater part of the popular arcade game conversions of the day and utilized this key portion to help their more seasoned equipment in the market. This game favorable position and the distinction in cost between the machines implied that every year, Atari sold a larger number of units than Intellivision, stretching its lead despite second rate designs. This requirement for value equality has affected every console war since.
The year 1982 saw the presentation of four new consoles: the Emerson Arcadia 2001, the Vectrex, Coleco Vision, and the Atari 5200. The Vectrex was exceptional among home frameworks of the time in featuring vector graphics and its independent display. The Paradise and Coleco Vision were considerably progressively amazing machines. The ubiquity of early consoles was unequivocally affected by the ports of arcade games. The Atari 2600 was the first, with Space Invaders, and Colecovision packaged in Nintendo's Donkey Kong.
Figure – Emerson Arcadia 2001, the Vectrex, Atari 5200 and the Coleco Vision (clockwise). Source: https://www.gamesradar.com/
By 1982, an overabundance of consoles, over-advertised game discharges, and low-quality games from new outsider engineers less solid and steady than Activision started to show up, flooding the rack limit of toy stores. Incompletely because of this surplus and the computer game blast brought about by Space Intruders saw a colossal number of new organizations and consoles spring up, coming about in a time of market immersion. Too many gaming supports, and excessively hardly any fascinating, connecting new games to play on them, in the end, prompted the 1983 North American computer games crash, which saw tremendous misfortunes, and truckloads of disliked, low-quality titles buried in the desert just to dispose of them. The gaming industry needed a change since practically no new games were discharged in 1984.
1.4 THE SUBSTANTIAL GROWTH
1.4.1 THE 8-BIT-ERA & RISE OF NINTENDO – 3rd GENERATION
In the history of PC and video games, the third generation (sometimes alluded to as the 8-bit time) started on July 15, 1983, with the Japanese release of both the Nintendo Family Computer (later known as the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES) and Sega SG-1000. Not only did this era bring one of the many outstanding improvements that contributed to the improvement of the gaming world, the transition from single-screen graphics to scrolling graphics, but it also managed to erase the memory of the North American computer game accident of 1983, therefore awarding Japan with its deserved title of the homeland of videogames. At the high end of the most popular and well-sold consoles list of this generation stands the NES/Famicom, (which remained the best-selling home console up until the PlayStation), trailed by the Sega Master System, ruling the European and South American markets, and afterward the Atari 7800.
Although the past generation of consoles had additionally used 8-bit processors, it was toward the finish of this generation that home consoles were first measured by their "bits". This likewise became stylish as 16-bit systems like the Sega Genesis were promoted to emphasize the improvements that come with every generation and concomitantly deepen the gap between them. Although the NES commanded the market in Japan and North America, Sega's Master System made enormous advances in Europe, Oceania, and Brazil, where the NES was always unable to break its grip. The Atari 7800 also had a genuinely fruitful life in the US, and the Sharp X68000 began its specialty run in Japan in 1987. The finish of the third era of computer games comes as 8-piece comforts become out of date in illustrations and handling power in contrast with their 16-piece counterparts.
Greater graphical and sound capabilities have been incredibly noticeable during this generation of consoles thanks to the improvements in technology that this period was provided with. The number of simultaneous colors on screen and the palette size both increased which, coupled with larger resolutions and more sprites on screen, meant that developers could create scenes with more detail. Five channel audio became common giving consoles the ability to produce a greater variation and range of sound. The inclusion of cartridges with on-board memory and batteries to allow users to save their progress in a game was presumably one of the most notable innovations, with Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda introducing the technology to the market. The feature allowed for much more expansive gaming worlds and in-depth storytelling, since users could now save their progress rather than having to start each gaming session at the beginning. It is safe to say that, had this innovation not happened, the gaming world would not have been anywhere nearly as vast as it is nowadays..
The third generation saw a significant number of the first console role-playing video games (RPGs). Altering and censorship of computer games were regularly utilized in localizing Japanese games to North America. During this time, a considerable lot of the most well-known computer game establishments ever were established. A few models are Super Mario Bros., Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda (which continues to lead the Nintendo niche of gaming up to nowadays), Dragon Quest, Metroid, Mega Man, Metal Gear, Castlevania, Phantasy Star, Megami Tensei, Ninja Gaiden, and Bomberman.
Game-geeks around the world, myself included, can safely say that the term "button mashing" was perfected by hours playing these iconic games. The NES paved the way for a multitude of features that are now standard on game consoles. But it also changed gameplay itself, making story-driven games, putting the user in the role of the character being controlled on-screen, rather than some external individual simply "playing" a game. The emotional drive of that sort of experience took the entire industry of gaming to the next level, thus puts this generation of consoles at the very top in regards to importance.
Figure – Nintendo Entertainment System (up-left); FAMICOM (down-right). Source: https://www.ebay.com/
Figure – Super Mario Bros, Final Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Quest, Ninja Gaiden – Author’s contribution
1.4.2 NEC & WORLDWIDE COMPETITION – 4th GENERATION
The fourth generation of video game consoles began on October 30, 1987 with the release of Nippon Electric Company's (NEC) PC Engine, but even though they released the first fourth-generation console, this generation was dominated by Nintendo and Sega. It is one of the most brilliant periods of gaming because consoles are considerably more cutting edge, smooth and incredible, and more importantly, because we are moving into the 16-piece period of better illustrations, more genuine hues, and progressively lively and vivid game structure. The two primary contenders that numerous gamers think back on affectionately are the ground-breaking SEGA Megadrive (otherwise known as the "Genesis" for those living in North America), which was racing against Nintendo's "Super Nintendo" framework (otherwise known as the "SNES") towards the ultimate goal of supremacy over the gaming development field.
Even though the competition was extremely tight, Nintendo managed to claim the prize and become the largest worldwide market share, Sega was too considerably successful in this generation. As one of their most memorable moves we could enlist the launch of their new franchise, Sonic the Hedgehog, designed and developed to compete with Nintendo's Mario series of games. SEGA’s Mega Drive was released in Japan on October 29, 1988, promoting itself as the cooler alternative to Nintendo's console. The Genesis additionally included "Blast Processing", which served the brand well since its most mainstream game had a character, storyline, execution, and play that concentrated on speed: Sonic from Sonic the Hedgehog and his possible companion, Knuckles. While Nintendo was viewed as "sheltered" and "family-accommodating", and kept on advancing through its game decisions and advertisement campaigns, SEGA did so through its mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog, and crusaded to style itself as outstanding, innovative and even launched an iconic catchphrase to gain an audience: ”Genesis does what Nintendon’t”, which remains well-known to this day.
In comparison to Nintendo's Super Mario games, where the main concept was completing levels with pinpoint precision, jumping to avoid dying and carefully climbing and avoiding your reptilian enemies, SEGA's Sonic, remaining true to its name and Genesis form, was all about making it through the levels at great speed. Mario's concept of falling to death was replaced, making the gameplay uninterrupted because players would have to find a new way through the level when they died. This approach proved itself to be extremely successful: all of a sudden, the SEGA Genesis's success skyrocketed, allowing them to come out with other titles and plenty of add-ons like the SEGA CD, the 32X and cartridges like the Micro Machines, which brought in two additional controller ports for a four-player experience. On April 21, 1989, when Nintendo presented the Game Boy, the first handheld game console released in the fourth generation, the gaming world was set on fire, and with everybody falling in love with the new console, it soon became the most popular hand-held game console and stayed like that for a long time.
Nintendo's fourth-generation console, the Super Famicom/ Super Nintendo (widely known as SNES or Super Nintendo Entertainment System), was released in Japan on November 21, 1990. Initially, Nintendo executives were reluctant to design a new system, but since the market transitioned to the newer hardware, they had no option but to go with the flow. Despite stiff competition from the Genesis console, the Super NES eventually took the top-selling position, selling 49.10 million units worldwide. In addition to their new console, Nintendo released many exclusive first-party franchise titles such as F-Zero, Starfox, Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario Kart, Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Super Metroid, for their audience to enjoy.
For now, Nintendo's SNES was powered with two custom graphics chips and a powerful audio unit. It was flat out satisfying to play with and staggeringly amazing, with the already ahead of their time plans and capacities of their past NES enhanced to the 16-piece era. In different words, the games — with titles that would be notable for the following two decades, at least — had effectively set the stage. At this point, all Nintendo needed to do was center around the player's needs and experience, and that is accurately what the Super Nintendo was made for.
While the Genesis concentrated on proclaiming its sheer processing power, Nintendo game engineers concentrated on pushing the structure and accounts of interactivity itself, making a truly top-to-bottom and emotional experience for the player. Future engineers like Ubisoft, Naughty Dog, and Bioware would stroll on these blessed grounds and continue the legacy.
Figure – Super Nintendo (left), SEGA Genesis (right) – Author’s contribution
2 METHODOLOGY
2.1 PURPOSE OF THE RESEARCH
The main purpose of the presented research is to systematically depict the evolution of the video game industry while also highlighting the most iconic milestones and devices, as well as to explore its close relationship with the worldwide economy and emphasize its utter importance in the daily life of common people. The aim is also to summarize how this industry focuses on the spirit of innovation and creativity of entrepreneurs, the competition between market leaders, the difficulty through which an entrepreneur can penetrate the market barriers in order for him to reach this difficult industry, the scalability of a possible business, and I have also analyzed how a person can set up a company, the steps they need to follow, what they need to consider, the obstacles they may face and how they will be overcome.
2.2 RESEARCH QUESTION
What is the market leader in the video game console industry? Which company is on the 2nd place, in the position of market challenger? Which companies are on the 3rd place, and are market nichers? What are the differences between these companies? What innovations does both Xbox and PlayStation or Nintendo bring? What are today's gaming trends? What will develop the most in the coming years? What were the innovations of the past, but were there some commercial failures and will not return to them? What is an open-world game, and how far does it go in the virtual world? How can a technology-savvy young person start a video production company? All these questions, as well as many others, we have addressed in this paper, to change the perception of some about this industry, which, although it seems difficult to understand, is very pleasant and interesting.
Regarding the question according to which I did my research part of the paper, it refers to a comparative analysis between traditional learning, in schools, and digital learning, which today, given the situation generated of the coronavirus pandemic, is even more used and analyzed. What are the advantages of each method? What are the problems they present? Which do we focus on more easily? Are some of the aspects analyzed.
2.3 SOURCES OF DATA AND RESEARCH TYPE
. The accumulated data aims to be clear and straightforward in order to be easily understood by any type of reader, either accustomed to the topic or not, so that they gain more in-depth knowledge about specific companies and their strategies as well. This thesis is mostly based on secondary data, meaning the data that has been gathered by someone else and has already been passed through statistical process. Most of it can be found on the internet because, if we keep in mind the continuously evolving nature of the video game industry, online sources are a much more up-to-date and reliable source of data than most books and journals. Books and journals have been, as well, used in the thesis, but the main source remains the wide variety of studies from analytical companies and other industry leaders, company annual reports, business articles and other news articles about the state of the industry and its development throughout the years that the internet provides.
The preferred type of data was qualitative, since the large amount of data needed to be touched in depth, every stage of the video game industry evolution needed to be rich in details so that no essential aspect would be missed and most importantly, the power that this industry has over each state’s economy had to be explored thoroughly.
Document analysis was the main method used to collect the data needed to explain the above mentioned topics. For the main idea the reader is aimed to understand, the industry’s development, various documents, from countless online articles that described every segment of the video game industry’s growth, to books dedicated to the its early stages such as Blake Harris’ “Console Wars”, have been carefully read in order to extract the core of the given information and process it to its final form. The process of highlighting the close relationship between the video game industry and the worldwide economy meant analyzing numerous studies from analytical companies and other industry leaders, company annual reports, business articles so that the numerical side of this topic would then be organized in charts and tables for readers of all ages to understand.
2.4 SAMPLE TECHNIQUE and QUESTIONNAIRES DEVELOPING
Because it is impractical to conduct an analysis on an entire population, sampling is a method that allowed me to obtain answers and draw a conclusion regarding the research question, from a subset of population, without having to investigate each person in part. Even if reducing the number of individuals on which a study is done can reduce costs and effort, we must keep in mind that choosing too few can affect the quality of the study and may show a lack of a true association with reality.
Therefore, we chose a total number of 32 people, with whom we conducted a structured interview, having the characteristics of a systematic sampling, because the people were selected in different groups in successive time intervals, to ensure a high relevance of the research. The sample consisted in asking a number of 10 questions as a result of a study, which aims to observe the ability to concentrate, memorize and manage the information learned both through a classic course support (sheet of paper) and through IT applications and platforms, which are part of the video development industry.
3 BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT & ANALYSIS OF THE INNOVATIONS STRATEGY IN THE GAMES INDUSTRY
3.1 PRODUCTS OF THE MOMENT – A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
3.1.2 PLAYSTATION REVOLUTION – CONSOLE ANALYSIS
Beginning in approximately October 4, 1993, the fifth generation of consoles was a time of many of the biggest leaps forward in the industry in terms of design, graphics, and storytelling in video games, as well as the way video games were viewed and played. Three mastermind consoles are the most representing of this generation: The PlayStation, Nintendo 64, and SEGA Saturn. While Nintendo and SEGA have been continuously battling to find out who could evolve farther and faster, it is the development of the Sony PlayStation that captures this era and changes everybody's mind. Sony's first generation of PlayStation was a fifth-generation console that marked the electronic giant's third attempt at entering the gaming market.
Only one year after its underlying drop in Japan during Christmas of 1994, over a million units had been sold, with a never before seen rate of merely 100,000 sold every 2-4 days. Its smash hits included games like the iconic Crash Bandicoot and Final Fantasy. Over the years, over 102 million devices were sold, placing the original PlayStation in second place in the world's best-sold gaming consoles, as can be seen in the chart below. (Hester, 2017).
This impressive generation of gaming consoles brought with itself an equally impressive number of games that really defined how console FPS should work such as Xbox’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind, Ninja Gaidens and numerous others. Even if the original Halo may have single-handedly sold the majority of Xbox consoles, it is its sequel that truly defined the console with its improved action, dual weapon wielding new feature, vehicle jacking, and the much more advanced experience with the game’s plot. Provided the colossal success that Sony had with its previous two consoles, the launch of their third product was nothing but unmatched, and for good reason. Since Blu-Ray was currently the new standard, the PS3 did not only offer this modern feature, but it also offered its audience a wide variety of console models, different not only in shape (The Original “Phat” model, The Slim model and The Super Slim version) but also in hard-drive sizes (from 20GB, 40GB, 60GB, 80GB, and 160GB versions).
The graph below shows the evolution of the total number of consoles sold worldwide. It can be seen that today Sony is a detached leader, with over 100 million PS4 consoles sold as of January 2020, and is followed by Nintendo and Xbox. Their consoles, if 2 years ago, the difference between the sales of the two was noticeable, namely 14 million Nintendo Switches sold compared to 35 million Xbox consoles, today those from Nintendo managed to surpass Microsoft, reaching a number a total of over 50 million consoles sold.
Figure – Worldwide sales comparison – PS4 – Xbox One – Nintendo Switch; source: https://www.vgchartz.com/article/442352
3.1.3 – OPEN-WORLD GAMES ANALYSIS – GRAND THEFT AUTO & OTHERS
While I have never owned the Original Xbox, I did own the PS2 and I could state from my very own experience that Xbox was not the only creative marketer around, with Sony being equally as creative. Such marvels of the gaming history that myself and millions of others found themselves playing, some still doing so to this day, are God of War (2005), which introduced us to Kratos and a bold world steeped in Greek mythology, Grand Theft Auto III (2001) and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002), which stirred more controversy among its audience than entire franchises altogether do today, the bone-chilling Silent Hill 2 (2001) that scared many generations, and the iconic Resident Evil 4 ( which was initially released for Nintendo’s GameCube in 2005), one of the best games of a franchise so long-lasting, one could say it is as old as gaming itself, that still releases new games even in 2020, just like Tomb Raider. (Plante, 2018)
The list of the best PS3 games is quite something to behold, with some absolute all-time favorites titans like Uncharted 2, The Last of Us, and Batman: Arkham Asylum, some under-appreciated classics like Resistance 3, Dead Space 2, and the LittleBigPlanet series, and thousands of other types of games for all ages, but absolutely nothing could have prepared the gaming community for Rockstar Games' drop in September 2013: Grand Theft Auto V / GTA V (also with an Xbox 360 version). As one of the most awaited video game titles to be released in 2013, the game was widely anticipated prior to its release. Grand Theft Auto V was released to universal acclaim, holding scores of 96 and above on MetaCritic and GameRankings, as well as receiving perfect scores from over 30 reviewers. The game sold 11,210,000 copies and grossed $800,000,000 on its first day of release, setting countless records, and eventually making $1,000,000,000 within 3 days of the game's release.
To this day, GTA V, remains the second best-selling game in history, with over 120 million copies sold, right after all-time record-breaker Minecraft, with more than 180 million copies sold, yet higher than the legendary Wii Sports that gathered over 83 million sales over the years, which gained the beloved Wii console a special place in their fans’ hearts. It now becomes about the games themselves and the experience of playing. Engineers understood that they should exploit the experience of the games themselves rather than only the structural design and abilities of their consoles, instead of attempting to duke out this piece of the gaming development pie.
3.1.4 JAPANESE PRODUCTS – ANALYSIS OF NINTENDO AND SEGA
The fifth generation of video game consoles also includes Nintendo 64 (also referred to as N64). It was originally launched in Japan in 1996 and was discontinued only in 2002. It was nicknamed by Time magazine "Machine of the Year", and was launched with 3 games: Super Mario 64, Pilotwings 64 (worldwide) and Saikyō Habu Shōgi, exclusively for the Japanese market.
Figure 10 – Best-Selling Consoles of All Time
Initially, the manufacturers wanted to sell the console for $ 250, but as Sony and Sega, the main competitors, reduced the price of the products to $ 199.99, and those from Nintendo had to comply. However, due to the huge demand and the low supply, prices in the United States have reached a record high. Some retailers also demanded $ 650 for a unit. Why? Because on the first day alone, in Japan alone, 300,000 pieces were sold. As well as the different colored consoles, Nintendo also released some special edition versions of the N64 including two blue and one orange Pikachu editions, as well as a Pokémon Battle Set version, a Jungle Green edition to commemorate the release of Donkey Kong 64, and a Gold edition exclusive to Toys R Us stores. Referred to by gamers as the "N64", the console introduced the 3D game advancement and interactivity, essentially squeezing up its illustrations and abilities, presenting incredible, workstation-level designs to the ordinary shopper.
Figure – Nintendo 64 Console (Orange Pikachu Edition). Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/
The third titan of this era’s fight for technological supremacy is SEGA’s Saturn console, released on November 22, 1994 in Japan as the successor to the successful Sega Genesis. The Saturn has a dual-CPU architecture and eight processors. Its games are in CD-ROM format, and its game library contains several arcade ports as well as original games. Despite its initial success in Japan, Sega Saturn failed to sell in large numbers in the United States after its surprise May 1995 launch, four months before its scheduled release date.
After the debut of the Nintendo 64 in late 1996, the Saturn rapidly lost market share in the U.S., where it was discontinued in 1998. Having sold 9.26 million units worldwide, Saturn is considered a commercial failure. Even though the Sega Saturn is remembered for several well-regarded games, including Nights into Dreams, the Panzer Dragoon series, and the Virtual Fighter series, its reputation is mixed due to its complex hardware design and limited third-party support. Nevertheless, with or without a luxurious amount of success, Sega Saturn is a worthy mention that shaped the fifth generation. To give you an idea we have attached here a chart showing the sales of both the SEGA Saturn and Nintendo:
Figure 12 – Sales of Sega vs. Nintendo on the Japanese Market. Source: https://www.neogaf.com/
3.1.5 MICROSOFT’S XBOX – SIXTH GENERATION
Starting roughly around the year 2000, the sixth generation of gaming consoles, or the 21st-century generation, is represented by not two or three, but four legendary consoles produced by our well-known giants in the gaming field and a surprise newcomer that would inevitably rock the existing charts: Sega’s Dreamcast (DC), Sony’s PlayStation 2 (PS2), Nintendo’s Game Cube (GC) and Microsoft’s Xbox.
After the historic amount of success the first generation of PlayStation was met with, it came to nobody’s surprise when Sony released the second version, PlayStation 2, or PS2 in Japan on March 4, 2000. This supports the accessories and controllers from the first, so customers no longer had to buy others. This business strategy (as opposed to the current Apple Company, which changes the size of products by 0.1 mm each year, to make previous accessories incompatible, and to force customers to buy others) has gone well with the public. As proof, the device remains the best-selling console in history, with 155 million units. Over 3800 games have been released for PlayStation 2, which have been copied over 1.5 billion times.
In the interim, Microsoft's arrival of the Xbox was ready to rock Sony’s boat. Presented to the public for the first time in the United States in November 2001 with the launch of the original Xbox console, Microsoft was first American company to release a gaming console after the Atari Jaguar stopped sales in 1996, detail which was not overlooked by the audience whatsoever.
There is a mind-blowing level of quick-paced advancement going on now, yet Nintendo is late to the game because the PS2 and the Xbox are centered around: an objective instead of on usefulness or game creation. The objective is straightforward: union. Which framework can turn into a consumer’s solution for a relaxing and enjoyable entertainment experience?
Figure – Sony PlayStation vs Microsoft Xbox sales, on generations. Source: www.reddit.com
The graph shown above shows the sales situation between the two main companies that compete with each other today. You can see the differences between the sixth generation and the seventh one, in the sense that in the period when Sony PlayStation 2 was the best-selling console in the world that reached an incredible record in just the first days after its official launch, Xbox would not reach even 20% of Sony's sales. Bill Gates' professional experience probably influenced the exponential development of Microsoft because in just a few years Xbox went from an unknown console to the second best-selling console in the world. With the launch of new products, Microsoft has managed to surpass SONY, something that no one expected.
3.2 COMPETITION AND MARKET BARRIERS
The first important factor that represents a major barrier to entry in this industry is technological capacity. Even though to this day, the number of IT employees worldwide is higher than ever, and the education systems of civilized countries have evolved, information technology requires a certain set of intellectual skills and a high level of dedication that few are capable.
Regarding the willingness of Romanians to invest personal time in this field we can see based on a survey conducted by the site www.arenait.ro, where 534 people were asked how much they change the appearance of their personal smartphone, that most among the respondents have a high degree of convenience and are not willing to show creativity and innovation even in matters that concern and interest them personally such as their own mobile phone.
The second important element that is an obstacle for potential video game developers is their appearance. For example, at the beginning of the third millennium, on the old mobile phones, the Snake game was one of the most used means of relaxation, although it had a low degree of complexity and difficulty. Unfortunately, today, this strategy is no longer viable, and the video game industry requires major innovations and financial investments that only existing companies with huge turnovers can support.
Gaming today looks nothing like what we started with, but the most exciting part is that the technological advancement and exquisite new ideas we have gotten used to along has never ceased to evolve as well. The gaming community and its developers have never settled for less than perfection in their tireless efforts to continuously push forward and it looks like this will not change in this generation of game consoles either. As technology innovates and evolves and this industry expands and joins more and more people, the standards that companies in the field have to meet are becoming higher and more difficult to achieve. Today, perfect quality is expected by the consumer.
The eighth generation of game consoles, the generation we are currently in, includes consoles released since 2012 by Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony, beginning on November 18, 2012, with the release of the Wii U, and continued with the release of the PlayStation 4 (PS4) on November 15, 2013, and the Xbox One on November 22, 2013. Unfortunately, Wii U was the first console of this generation to be discontinued, on January 31, 2017, to make way for Nintendo's second home console competitor, the Nintendo Switch, released on March 3, 2017.
These three giants that we are so familiar with by now and their consoles are those in charge of further shaping the gaming industry into what the future may hold, and here we encounter another important problem that is a barrier to entry into this industry:
Marketing is another major hurdle this industry faces. In the case of people running a small family business, investing in advertising is not a problem, and the means to address the target audience are easy to understand and implement. This is because businesses are generally conducted within a limited geographical area and it is easier for us to understand consumer behavior in the area in which we operate. On the other hand, if we launch a video game on the market, a platform that supports video games or in general any kind of application, we will have to invest considerable amounts in marketing, because we address people from all over the world, and our products and services will be used by people with totally different education and culture so we can't thank everyone and we won't be able to address everyone properly. By not being related to our potential customers, as well as not understanding their behaviors, we will not have the optimal means to address, and all these shortcomings will raise costs.
Throughout time, it looks like our personal preferences in body types and sizes began being reflected on the consoles we play with as well, and Sony and Microsoft seem to be the initiators of this size categorization. In August 2016 and September 2016, Microsoft and Sony respectively both released "slim" revisions of their consoles, the Xbox One S and the PlayStation 4 Slim.
Nowadays consoles that specialize in running video games have many other advantages and features for the user. He can access the internet, connect to social networks to get in touch and be close to friends and family. It can also use online movie platforms such as Netflix and HBO. These state-of-the-art consoles are also optimized for listening to music and podcasts, for storing information, such as holiday pictures and videos. In the chart below we can see, following the research we have undertaken, how people use these consoles and what the activities they carry out every day are.
Figure – Video games console usage in the US, by activity. Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/
3.3 INNOVATIONS BROUGHT BY PLAYSTATION AND XBOX
Sony’s well-deserved accomplishment of that number would not be as outstanding as it is had the following adaptations not been mentioned:
– Besides coming with CD versions of their games, Sony also came with a more appealing and visually pleasing shape for their console, unlike Nintendo who kept the main rough features for quite some time. These ahead of their time features are the reason why no one was surprised when the PS2 came out and doubled up as a DVD player, effectively making Sony your "all-in-one" entertainment center.
– Another boost to their ground-shaking popularity and development was when the Final Fantasy franchise from Squaresoft (Square-Enix) moved over from Nintendo to the PlayStation
– A feature that could easily be recognized by everyone today was introduced as early as the PS1: the “DualShock” controllers entered the game and changed it forever.
– Sony is the one company that presented the memory card to the gaming community. Its obvious perk was that you could save your game, take it around to your friend's place and continue where you left off, a thing that people would not even fantasize about before.
The last decade started with the release of Microsoft's Xbox 360 home console, soon followed by the release of Sony Computer Entertainment's PlayStation 3 or PS3 and Nintendo's Wii on the following year. Improvements dominated this generation, and the competition was tougher and tougher: while the Xbox 360 provided high-definition video resolution (HD) games, the PS3 offered HD movie playback through a built-in 3D Blu-ray Disc player, and the Wii emphasized integrating controllers with movement sensors as well as joysticks. Their technology was so advanced that some Wii consoles enabled gamers to simulate real-life actions through movement during gameplay.
The monumental advance in technology launched video game consoles up to the point where they represented an important part of the global IT infrastructure and an estimated 25% of the world's general-purpose computational power in 2007.
Figure – Photo from Wii Launch. Source: https://guardianlv.com/
Threatened by Nintendo’s launch of motion devices and software, Sony also took a historic step forward by releasing the PlayStation Move in September 2010, which featured motion-sensing gaming similar to that of the Wii, followed by Microsoft’s Kinect discharged in November of the same year. Kinect did not use controllers at all, instead, it made the players act as the "controllers". With eight million units sold in its first 60 days on the market, Kinect claimed the Guinness World Record for the "fastest-selling consumer electronics device".
The Xbox One S notably added support for HDR video and Ultra HD Blu-ray, while Sony released a software update to add HDR to all existing PlayStation 4 consoles. However, an upgraded version of the PlayStation 4, the PlayStation 4 Pro, was also released later in November 2016.
Microsoft also announced an upgraded version of the Xbox One in 2016 under the name Project Scorpio that would later become the Xbox One X, released in November 2017. Both the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X were aimed at providing upgraded hardware to support rendering games at up to 4K resolution to make every fan’s dream of futuristic crystal clean graphics come true. This enlarged the gaming community even more.
One of the most revolutionary concepts introduced by this generation is Online Gaming. The Xbox Live service provided people with the chance to play games online, with or without a broadband connection. Its first competitor was Dreamcast's online service, but eventually the battle was mainly against PlayStation 2's online service. Even if Xbox Live required a subscription, as well as a broadband-only connection which was not completely adopted yet, Xbox Live was a success due to better servers, features such as a buddy list, and milestone titles like Halo 2, which is the best-selling Xbox video game and was by far the most popular online game for the system.
Like all of us, myself included got used to, this generation has already released massive amounts of unequaled games to suit all tastes, out of which we should highlight only a few that stood out the most such as Dark Souls (2012), Hotline Miami (2012), the Far Cry series, with its astounding most recent release, Far Cry New Dawn in 2019 (2012- present), the historic Naughty Dog’s The Last Of Us (2013) that announced the release of the sequel, The Last Of Us Part II, in 2020, the massive Assassin’s Creed series with Assassin's Creed Odyssey from 2018, the God Of War franchise, which after its 2018 drop assured fans that work on developing the bold series that we have grown with is nowhere near its end, and the list could go on much longer than anyone would be willing to read. We are hopeful that this generation and those that follow would take the gaming industry to unthinkable levels.
4 VIDEO GAMES FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES
Since the beginning of the video game industry, it has been taken into account their integration in educational institutions and their use so that students can learn in a framework more innovative, more technological, and more adapted to the new era. However, digital game developers have been hit by teachers' reluctance to use this kind of educational material over the classic ones. However, things are about to change, because many people today agree that learning through digital platforms is more efficient and more appealing to the new generation.
Initially, the idea was for educational materials to be uploaded to the Internet. Thus, it was wanted to avoid a series of problems, many of them being present in Romania. In this way, students who live a long distance from the educational unit and are required to commute every day would have had access to materials from the comfort of their own homes, without having to cross tens of kilometers. Also, the young pupils who go to school having a textbook for each subject, with up to 7-8 subjects a day, and for each of them having also a notebook, would not have carried their heavy backpacks anymore, being able to invest in a tablet and learning directly from it.
4.1 TRENDS: E-LEARNING AND LMS
This trend failed to develop because the platforms were often filled with inactive and passive content, and students were unable to find the motivation to study. Dropout rates were very high, and soon public opinion began to write about the failure of E-learning platforms. However, in the early 2000s, this changed, and E-learning platforms were replaced by Learning Management Systems (LMS). These systems are designed so that the instructor/teacher is in permanent contact with the student, to assist him/her in the learning process. The instructor can follow the evolution of the student and can guide him and thus the learning communities are promoted through cooperation between individuals. The content of these systems differs significantly from those of the previous generation. The information consists not only of text but also of other multimedia and interactive elements. Also, personalized profiles can be created according to the learning abilities of each student, in order to address the personal and efficient needs of each one.
All these facilities of the new digital learning systems can be accompanied or even replaced by the use of games, which is an emerging trend widely publicized today. Following the natural evolution of technology and everyday life, games can be the next step towards a more effective and pleasant educational system from different perspectives: adaptive learning, reflective learning, and collaborative learning.
In the diagram below it is depicted the process through which data assimilation would go through, with the help of constant standardized communication, if educational games were used, proving how simple yet effective the cycle is:
Figure – LMS Diagram – Author's contribution
4.2 COLLABORATIVE LEARNING – VIRTUAL WORLDS
An interesting trend in terms of collaborative learning is the use of virtual worlds in more diverse ways. Students can have their own character in the game, with which they can interact with others. The narrative of the game is revealed as the player progresses, and the missions correspond to his tasks in real life. In this way, the motivation and concentration are kept at high levels, and the competitive spirit of the students is developed, because everyone wants to win in games, especially when the competitors, the other players are your colleagues.
Probably the most popular virtual reality game is Second Life. The game was launched in 2003 by an American company in San Francisco, and in 2013 it gathered more than 1 million daily players, losing its popularity, remaining with about 800 thousand today. However, it was a real sensation, a trend that changed the gaming world. Players are represented by avatars, which function as residents in the virtual world. They can interact with others, they can sell or buy property, goods or services, they can travel, build buildings, and they can participate in individual or group activities. The game is so complex that it is forbidden to minors under the age of 16, with one exception: If they play in a special world, where some things are restricted, and are sponsored by an educational unit. Players are advised not to reveal their identity. In 2015, the game had a gross domestic product of $500 billion, larger than some countries, including Romania. The company's profit was $60 billion. These figures are proof of the extent to which this industry can reach.
The game has an internal economy, in which "Linden Dollar" is used as the currency. The money can be used as in real life, and there is even an exchange rate, where it can be converted into real US dollars. There is an intense entrepreneurial activity in this game, and the company that developed the platform announced in 2013 that trade between players reached $3.2 billion, with an average of 1.2 million daily transactions. In 2006, a young Chinese woman named Anshe Chung, became the first millionaire with money made entirely from the virtual world, turning $10 into $1,000,000 in just 2 and a half years.
Figure – The first video game millionaire. Source: https://www.oddee.com/
4.3 DIGITAL VS. TRADITIONAL LEARNING
4.3.1 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
The use of technology and digital platforms and games to help students learn more effectively and effectively has many advantages. These are convenient and flexible, being available anywhere and anytime, the fact that you no longer have to depend on the availability of the teacher, that you can do things at your own pace, so that even full-time or part-time students can learn, without having to choose between work or school. Another advantage is that it can be learned on the weekend, and whenever the student has free time. Also, the videos and audio files can be listened to again, and again, in case the student did not understand, and through the games the competitive spirit and teamwork skills are developed. There are also several disadvantages, such as the tendency for questions and answers in the online environment to be more knowledge-based than practicality – based, security vulnerabilities sometimes present in games, applications, and other types of online learning, and the lack of a human presence that you can ask anytime you have unclear. Also, students can be more easily distracted when learning with digital software.
4.3.2 SURVEY-BASED RESEARCH
I decided to research the performance offered by the classic options for home learning, books or materials provided by teachers, compared to the study with specialized and interactive software, and in this case, I chose the Microsoft Office PowerPoint program, which includes besides the graphics, interactive elements, possibilities to change the appearance, colors, and dimensions, and sound and multimedia effects that can be applied extremely easily by any user, without having to have in-depth knowledge in the field.
This research tool takes the form of a structured interview, and we used a sample of individuals because it is impractical and quite difficult to test an entire population, a more cost-effective option and less effort compared to the final results obtained is the use of a limited number of respondents.
Due to the lack of people available to participate in this research, it also takes the form of a Convenience Sample. This is perhaps the easiest method of sampling, because participants are selected based on availability and willingness to take part. The research was made between 27 and 29 February 2020, regarding the capacity of absorption and reformulation of the information collected both through a digital platform and from a classic book. In this test I used the online learning platform of the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest: www.webstudent.ase.ro.
Also, the research tool approached presents the characteristics of a stratified sample. The number of respondents is divided into subgroups (or strata) who all share a similar characteristic. In my case, all the people who took part in the study were students and belonged to the academic field, but to put a correlation between the results obtained and the current reality, I was of the opinion that it would be appropriate to choose the sample numbers from each university depending on the number of students studying there. In this sense, this study sample is then obtained by taking equal sample sizes from each stratum: the University of Bucharest and the Academy of Economic Studies.
In 2020, 22,038 students studied at the University of Bucharest, within the bachelor's programs, and at the Academy of Economic Studies, according to the latest data we found, in 2018, 6009 students were admitted to the bachelor's degree. Therefore, keeping the proportionality, in my research I selected 25 respondents from UB and 7 from ASE.
4.3.2.1 First Phase – Digital Learning
In this experiment, the first step was to download an informative material from this platform, in PowerPoint format, and process it in order to display it on an Apple iPad tablet. My goal was to keep the interactive elements in the relationship with the reader, such as transitions, animations, 3D graphics, fonts of different colors and shapes, drawings, and other design elements. Within the PowerPoint materials where these elements were missing, I added them. Finally we got a PowerPoint presentation of 26 slides.
Later, I downloaded the same educational material in word format, and integrated it between two other documents, to simulate a book. The word document only had 15 pages, because the design elements and those that stimulated the reader's creativity and imagination were completely missing. Thus, there remained a large mass of text, which, if our case study had confirmed this, would be less appealing to students. The final document has been printed, in A5 format, so that the final format is as close as possible to the classic textbooks. I went to a specialized bookstore that linked all the pages with a metallic rail, inserted a cover and other details because I considered that if I want an exact, relevant and serious result, I must follow all the steps necessary for the clarity of the hypothesis and the premises.
The third step was to take each test subject in turn, and explain to them what to do. The requirements were simple: "Today, February 27, each has 15 minutes, on the stopwatch, to read the material in the classic format, on a sheet of paper. After you finish, you will pass the text to the next participant, and you will have to respond to a lightning test, with 10 questions, related to the material you read, to observe the degree to which you were able to capture the information, and implicitly if you managed to go through the whole text without being demotivated. Subsequently, the steps will be repeated for each person.”
All the questions I formulated had their answers in the educational material taken from the platform, and the answers were well defined, in order to avoid subjectivity in their evaluation.
After the 32 people completed the test, we recorded the results and averaged them. The test results were 6.75 / 10, in other words, after learning from the classic format, the research participants managed to answer only 6.75 questions out of 10. Also, 12 people out of 32 (37.5%) declared that they did not they had the time to finish the material, because they were lost in details. 8 people (25%) claimed that they failed to stay focused, and offered as explanations the banality and similarity with which the information was presented, "with the same font, the same color, the same lines that are repeated endlessly".
4.3.2.2 Second Phase – Traditional Learning
After successfully completing the first part of this research, I decided to wait another two days to support the next phase. I chose not to do everything the same day so that the survey participants could forget everything they read in a classic format on paper. Also from the same considerations I chose my friends to help me in this special study, from another faculty (University of Bucharest), because they study completely other subjects and fields as opposed to me. Thus, it will be very easy for them to delete from their minds a text having as a subject statistics and econometrics.
Two days later we met again, and followed exactly the same steps as the first day, to ensure relevant and clear results. Each student had the same 15 minutes to read the same educational material, although the PowerPoint document was, at first glance, longer than the word (26 slides vs. 15 pages). After a person finishes reading the text, or their time runs out (whichever event occurs first), he will pass the tablet to the next participant and answer a test, with 10 questions, of course totally different from those in the first part of the research- but with the same clear, well-defined answers, of the type "right or wrong, there is no middle way". All these steps were repeated for each person, and after about two hours the experiment ended, and I checked the answers and synthesized the results.
From a total of 10 questions, the research participants correctly answered 7.87 questions, on average. The evolution from the previous result, respectively the old type learning, on a normal textbook, and the modern learning average, consisting of technology-enhanced learning, is 16.59%. 28 participants out of a total of 32 (87.5) agreed that through specialized software, the information can be summarized and presented in a clearer, more succinct and easier to understand way. I have asked them the same questions as in the first test, and only 4 people out of 32 (12.5%) declared that they did not they had the time to finish the material, because they were lost in details. 6 people (18.75%) claimed that they failed to stay focused, claiming different irrelevant reasons, like being tired.
In the following graphical representation you can see the differences between learning through the classical educational system, and how the behavior of students changes when dealing with a digital, interactive platform. The chart is made taking into account the 3 criteria previously developed, namely:
– The ability of students to stay focused until the end of the task, which is represented by the color green, to show clearly and contrastingly the evolution when it comes to technological learning;
– the ability of the respondents to go through all the questions, therefore, the necessary time, which is represented by the red bar, and which indicates the total percentage of students who stated that the time was sufficient, not under its pressure, where a major discrepancy can be clearly seen. , which shows us that learning through digital platforms is easier to follow, being able to assimilate it faster;
– the blue bar represents the correct answers in the first and in the second researched situation, I think that this is an important indicator, because the materials were similar, and the students' results depend, to a large extent, on their ability to assimilate information, in depending on the source of learning. In the following chart I will make a detailed comparison between the first situation representing traditional education and the second situation in which electronic means were used.
4.3.2.3 Conclusion
As a conclusion, following the survey I developed, I can say with certainty that the difference is noticeable, and that through technology, digital learning platforms, and specialized programs, the information can be reformulated so that each keyword is sustained by a graphic, a drawing, or a simple textbox. In this way, as we read, our imagination works continuously, stimulating our creativity and the spirit of self-development and innovation. In contrast, the classic materials, where information is drawn on paper, line by line, and each one looks perfectly like the other, the attractiveness of learning decreases, and we tend to demotivate and give up, shifting our attention very easily to other less important things.
5 HOW TO START A VIDEO GAMES COMPANY
5.1 FROM IDEA TO A SELF-PAYING VENTURE
5.1.1 BUSINESS PLANNING
A business plan is absolutely essential in the development of any business. A calculated entrepreneur will always know what the next step is, what his goals and objectives are and where he is heading. Some key elements you need to know:
– What will be the name of your company? It may not matter now, but if it grows exponentially, you will want it to sound good.
– What kind of company do you want to be? Analyze all the possibilities and find out which one is right for you.
– What are the start-up costs? Did you add any unexpected expenses? Do you meet all the legal requirements?
– How long will it take you to reach the break-even point?
5.1.2 HOW MUCH MONEY DO YOU NEED?
To create a company whose field of activity is video game development, you need a high starter budget. You have to buy:
– High-performance computers, (cost per piece between 1000 – 3000 EUR);
– Printers, copiers, consumables (cost per piece around 200 EUR);
– Servers, protection equipment against cyber-attacks;
– Software specialized in video content development;
– Insurance (for the company's assets)
– you must have a space in which to carry out your activity, the prices vary in a very wide margin depending on the space, floor, degree of street exposure, building, area, etc. Take into account the space you need for servers and rooms designed for meeting with potential investors and customers.
– wage costs – unless you have a great experience in this field and you can develop games by yourself, you need a team, which you can pay through monthly salaries or you can offer percentages of the company, depending on your business strategy. You may need to hire coders, designers, writers, but also someone to handle the finances, the business side of the company, like accountants, managers. It is important when you hire someone to let them know that you are at your beginnings, and you cannot afford to pay them Rockstar Games like salaries. Also, they have to share your vision, your goals, and ambitions, and they have to be ready to put a lot of effort into it.
5.1.3 WHAT IS YOUR TARGET MARKET?
Video game companies make money from developing intriguing, fun, special games, and making them available to the masses. But video games are intended for children from 7-8 years old as well as adults. You need to know exactly who you work for and who fits the content you develop, so you and your team will know how far you are willing to go in terms of complexity, price, narrative, and graphics of each game.
5.1.4 HOW TO DEFINE YOUR PRICES
Video games are of several types:
– for consoles, such as Xbox, PlayStation or Nintendo, with prices ranging from 30 to 80 euros for the latest releases, and between 10 and 30 euros for the older ones;
– arcades, i.e. the machines operated with coins that we find in games rooms, prices are around 1 euro per minute;
-for personal computers, with prices between 10 and 50 euros depending on complexity, date of appearance, etc.;
-for smartphones, with prices between 1 and 5 euros; and so on
The profit potential for companies developing video games is unlimited. This can be increased by allowing users to make in-app purchases, by entering into agreements with companies that produce consoles through package sales, by offering real discounts, and only a few a year, on holidays and Black Friday for example.
5.1.5 COMPANY REGISTRATION:
When you have a well-developed business plan, you know exactly what company you want to create, and you have all the money, you don't have to hit the spot, and the next step is to register your company at the Trade Register in your city. You have to decide whether to register for VAT purposes or not, you need to find out how you pay your taxes and where, and some other details. It is also advisable to conclude insurance for your business.
5.2 INNOVATIONS, FUTURE TRENDS AND PERSPECTIVES
When it comes to our free time, how many of us reach for a game controller instead of a TV remote? In 2019, the gaming industry generated $120 billion in revenue, and experts predict it could reach $200 billion within two years, so we could state that the answer to that initial question is many. Hardly anyone could have imagined the progress in video game quality we have achieved in the last few decades, so how would we ever be able to know that the future holds for this continuously growing industry? Today’s gaming systems offer 4K resolution, virtual reality (VR) capabilities, and powerful artificial intelligence (AI) to challenge even the most grizzled gamers. But what does the future hold for video gaming?
5.2.1 VIRTUAL REALITY
Most VR frameworks work through headsets which inundate gamers into the computer game understanding. In spite of the fact that buyer deals have not been as high as initially anticipated, VR innovation has still evolved in gamers' eyes, even with innovation in its first stages. So what would we be able to expect later on VR?
As time passes, the applications and capacities of VR innovation develop. Past visual enhancements, some video investigators accept that VR's greatest guarantee in association with virtual characters or AI-driven NPCs (nonplayer characters). For in-your-face gamers, the chance of straightforwardly cooperating with great characters from their preferred computer games is an energizing possibility. Another potential region for VR organizations to investigate is mass-VR gaming in the structure of VR fields. A few organizations have just started making gigantic distribution center offices that empower groups of gamers to contend with one another in vivid, recreated situations.
5.2.2 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
With a couple of taps of the screen, we can change the shades of our general surroundings, making another world, an enlarged world, through the screens of our cell phones. This can't new; the world-famous Pokémon Go was the principal game to break enlarged reality (AR) into the standard, permitting fans both old and new to savor a long-dearest arrangement. Nonetheless, none of this would've been conceivable without the leaps forward in AI and PC vision.
Everybody is standing by to see upgrades in signal acknowledgment. There are sure issues like look courses, which are fascinating to deal with. To give a characteristic encounter to the clients, it is smarter to make a helpful item. For instance, it will be intriguing when a client just ganders at an article and it gets recognized right away. This is something we can actualize, all things considered, by taking out the activity of an individual from turning his head.
5.2.3 CLOUD GAMING
With progressively dependable and quicker web associations, the innovation of distributed computing has started to increase some force. The Sims maker Will Wright grasps cloud gaming as a crucial part of things to come of the business. For a certain something, the gaming business considers it to be an open door to make games as simple to access as music and motion pictures.
With Cloud Gaming, we need not stand by everlastingly to get updates to top-notch games. It's everything in the cloud and we should simply interface with it with a steady Internet association and play however much we might want. Games will likewise be less expensive and all the more effectively accessible via PCs and even tablets. How much longer need we sit tight for this? In August 2012, Sony has purchased Gaikai the world's biggest and most broad cloud gaming administration for $380 million and is relied upon to consolidate it into PlayStation 4.
5.2.4 BEYOND CONSOLES
Numerous specialists accept that the ascent of portable innovation and versatile gaming signals the finish of conventional support gaming. Although Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft order a lot of computer game industry continues, portable gaming has been getting up to speed. In 2018, Electronic Arts, one of the world's greatest video gaming companies, purchased cloud gushing technology created by the game rental organization GameFly. More established ages of gamers have customarily connected gaming with independent support in their home, however, for more youthful shoppers, games are thought of as versatile first. For producers, this has upsides and drawbacks. For one, deals of pricier consoles and games are drifting down. In any case, versatile first games and cloud-based gaming will bring about consistent income as in-game buys and membership models, for example, "fight passes."
Computer games have made considerable progress since the beginning of pixelated characters and low-goals manager battles. Gamers are encountering diversion in entirely different manners, regularly straightforwardly in the job of the characters they used to venerate. It is not yet clear where computer game innovation is going; however on the off chance that present patterns are a marker, we might be at the bleeding edge of an entirely different universe of totally vivid amusement.
5.2.5 OTHER EXPECTED IMPROVEMENTS
– Many blockbuster games presently highlight fundamental characters who are ladies or minorities. Even though the quantity of female game creators is still moderately low, the ascent of differing games will follow showcase patterns. What's more, some game fashioners are making it a point to add greater decent variety to their games and bring more ethnic minorities into the business.
– As analysts grow better innovation, the requirement for cumbersome frameworks and wires is getting out of date. Notwithstanding the reality that mobile and tablet gaming makes most of the advanced gaming market, versatile games will be on the ascent in the following decade.
– With the blasting business sector for handheld gadgets like cell phones and tablets, the comfort war between the three significant brands (Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo) has escalated, with a rush to design an auxiliary gaming device for players.
They say forecasts regarding how innovation will advance in the future have consistently been off base since we can never truly predict how we may go astray from the expected utilization of the first creation.
6 THE IMPACT OF THE NEW GLOBAL PANDEMIC ON THE VIDEO INDUSTRY
6.1 INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW
In the following pages I will analyze how the SARS-COV-19 pandemic, which changed the world we knew and got used to, also affected the media and video game industry, from the behavior of companies and the way in which they reacted and adapted to change, to the point of changing the behavior of consumers everywhere. I will make a comparison regarding the new trends and habits that society has embraced, and I will propose a list of measures and solutions that can help us get through this difficult time.
6.2 MEDIA CONSUMPTION AT HOME – ANALYSIS AND EVOLUTION
I will start by assessing the situation in March of this year, 2020, regarding the evolution of in-home media consumption, as a consequence of the outbreak of the new virus. The data speak for themselves, we can see that the increase is huge, and in some cases the figures have doubled compared to the initial situation.
Figure 18 – Consuming media at home due to the coronavirus worldwide 2020, by country
In terms of watching TV news, the country where the new virus had the biggest impact was China, where the consumption of this type of media increased by 77%. My opinion is that the country's far-left political orientation has influenced the population's behavior. Excessive propaganda by the government has led citizens to get information only from official sources, and the ratio between the total number of media consumers and those who check the information and other sources is disadvantageous, because people blindly trust what the government tells them.
On the other hand, in France, the percentage is only 50%. I believe that the freer and more relaxed nature of this country's policy is a consequence of this public attitude.
Regarding the evolution of the consumption of movies and series, online, through specialized platforms, the situation is different. These, in fact, represent an emerging trend in the recent years, and have radically changed our behavior when it comes to consuming this type of content, in the sense that we no longer wait a certain hour every day to watch our favorite series, but we only need an internet connection. Such platforms, such as Netflix, HBO GO or Voyo have a very simple interface, which can be used by anyone regardless of age, IT experience or education. These platforms provide us with a wide range of movies and series, which we can open at any time of the day or night, and the payment is made monthly, regardless of the volume of media content we consume.
The pandemic generated by the new Coronavirus has led to an increase in the consumption of this type of content, and the largest seems to be in China – by 63%. At the opposite pole, just like in the previous example, regarding watching TV news is France, with 31% – a figure 2 times lower.
When it comes to the consumption of video games, both those played on personal computers (PC, laptops) and on other platforms (video consoles, smartphones), I notice that the Spaniards have registered the highest growth, of almost 50%. That country is in the world top in terms of deaths and infections, and also their measures of isolation and social distancing are some of the most intense and restrictive in the world. The natural conclusion of this evolution is that, in the absence of permission to carry out outdoor activities, sports, and to meet friends and loved ones, Spanish citizens withdraw in the field of entertainment, and spend their days playing video games.
Regarding this important indicator, I think that both the big content producers and the industries that build consoles and computers will focus on this market, especially since experts believe that there will be a second wave of increasing the number of infections, in the autumn.
Spain is followed in this top by Italy, with a 41% increase in video game consumption, and by France, with a 39% increase. We all know how affected these two countries are, unfortunately, and the huge number of infections and deaths present there, so I can observe a directly proportional correlation between the number of cases – and the time citizens are spending, using video games for relaxation purposes.
Globally, people spend 36% more time playing video games, and the countries at the opposite end of the spectrum are China and Germany, which have seen increases of only 29 and 21%, respectively. Similarly, I believe that these indicators will represent important decision-making factors regarding the attitude of the companies in this field, which are present in the above-mentioned countries. They will act according to a simple pattern, as the delivery company Uber Eats did in Romania: Do we not have enough demand? And are there more appetizing markets? We will withdraw and focus on those that give us the best performance.
6.3 DEVICES USED WORLDWIDE – ANALYSIS BY AGE GENERATIONS
First of all, in order for us to have a broad and relevant view of this chart, I want to remind you what defines the 4 generations mentioned below:
– The baby boomers are adults born after World War II, between 1944 and 1964, who are now, as of 2020, between 56 and 76 years old;
– Generation X, people born between 1965 and 1979, now between 41 and 55 years old;
– Generation Y, also called the Millennials, represents young people born between 1980 and 1994, who are now between 26 and 40 years old;
– Finally, the most recently recognized generation worldwide is Generation Z, of which we are part, consisting of young people aged 5-25 years, born between 1995 and 2015.
Figure – Device usage increase due to the coronavirus worldwide 2020, by generation
The graph mentioned above shows the evolution, negative or positive, of the use of electronic devices, as a result of the context of the pandemic with the new coronavirus. We can see that there is no decrease, and the new virus has only generated increases, larger or smaller, in the number of electronic devices used in recent months. Regardless of age, regardless of country, regardless of the device used, one thing is certain: We use digital media more than ever. In the following lines I will conclude a detailed analysis of the aforementioned percentages.
When it comes to smartphones, the more time we spent on them is due to the fact that, unable to meet with friends and family due to restrictions imposed by the authorities, we communicate with them by phone, messages or social networks in a to a greater extent, but also to the fact that, staying longer in the house, we download new video games to spend our free time and forget about boredom.
Globally, young people between the ages of 5 and 25 use smartphones 82% more. Given that they usually live in the same home with their family, it means that they do not use them to have phone calls so much, so it is clear that this huge evolution is based on the use of social networks and increased hours spent by playing video games on a smartphone, both single player, but especially multiplayer with friends, because we all know that we lived through difficult times when we felt alone, and we tried to console ourselves through digital means as much as possible. Also, analyzing this graph, I notice that the Z generation are also leaders when we refer to the other digital devices. They use laptops 56% more than before the coronavirus, personal computers 34% more, smart TVs 29% more, and tablets are used 22% more.
When it comes to Generation Y, those aged between 26 and 40, the situation is quite similar, but there are some differences that are important, useful indicators for companies operating in the video game industry, and these differences must mentioned.
As for smartphones, they were used less compared to Generation Z – the increase was 72%, compared to 82%. Probably this happened because, from personal experience, when I was younger I was much more passionate about smartphones, because this wonderful device appeared on the market and experienced an exponential growth around 2010. Being raised with monochrome phones, which we ironically call "bricks" today, that innovation was an incredible step in the evolution of the video industry, and we were extremely passionate about them, also investing large sums of money to have the latest model and to stand out in front of our friends.
Generation Y caught that period, at an older age, when they were more concerned with saving money, and building a future, so they were not too impressed by the evolution of smartphones, and did not invest fanatically in them. So, my conclusion is that, once you get older you start to become more rational and lose interest in gadgets, being preoccupied with more serious things, hence the lower growth for the use of smartphones in the Y generation. When it comes to laptops and personal computers, the situation is similar, so Generation Y has seen an increase in the rate of their use, but lower than that of Generation Z, 42% vs. 56% for laptops, and 31% vs 34% for computers.
The situation is taking a completely different direction in terms of smart TVs, tablets, game consoles and smart speakers. If the products you've been dreaming of since you were a child, if you are part of Generation Z, was an iPhone 3GS, a Nokia with a touchscreen or a laptop on which you can play GTA San Andreas with your comrades in the neighborhood, for those in Generation Y, the products you dreamed of were different. Thus, smart TVs were used by 32% more than the pre-coronavirus period, tablets by 27% more, game consoles by 18% more and smart speakers by 12% more. All of these increases are higher than in the case of generation Z, and these indicators reveal the technology preferences of young people and middle-aged adults, compared to the preferences of children and adolescents. I would suggest to video content producers and big players in the console, TV, audio devices, headphones industry etc. to take into account these percentages, so they can better choose their target audience and can focus their efforts according to what everyone wants.
To provide an overview, the following graph shows how much increased media device usage due to the coronavirus outbreak among internet users worldwide as of March 2020; the analysis is made on the countries most affected by the new coronavirus. The figures speak for themselves, and I believe that the research and development departments of large companies should consider these correlations, because I believe they can use them a lot.
Figure – Device usage increase due to the coronavirus worldwide 2020, by country. Source: Global Web Index
In the case of Generation X, we find that although the coronavirus pandemic had the same general effect, namely to increase the consumption of technology, the increases were smaller. In the case of video game consoles, if generation Y had an increase of 18% compared to the pre-outbreak situation, generation X had an increase of 2 times smaller, of only 9%. In the case of smartphones, the difference compared to last year remains huge, even in the case of people long past their early youth, which we would not expect to use so much. Generation X adults use smartphones 66% more than before. Also, while the increase in the use rate of laptops, notebooks and other types of "portable computers" is lower and lower as we talk about older people, because we observe that in the case of Generation X the increase is only 33%, the appetite for fixed, personal computers remained quite inelastic. Generation X registered an increase identical to that of Generation Y in terms of the use of personal computers, of 31%.
We know that adults spend more time than young people in front of smart TVs, which they use to access video platforms, Netflix, HBO or even games, and we notice that the increase in the use of these platforms is about the same as in the case of younger people: 30% for Generation X vs. 32% for Generation Y.
6.4 THE EVOLUTION OF CONSOLE AND GAME SALES
The following graphs show the impact this pandemic has had on the sales of large companies. The following figures show the situation in general, in terms of value and total sales volume, but also show the number of downloads of individual titles, such as Plague (an apocalyptic game that has to do with the current pandemic) or Pokémon GO. It seems that people are reorienting themselves towards video games to keep their morale high during periods of self-isolation.
Figure – COVID-19: global video game and console increase as of March 2020 (left). Source: Washington Post
Figure – COVID-19: global video game sales increase as of March 2020 (right). Source: Washington Post
Between March 16 and 22, in less than a week, 1.58 million physical games were sold, according to the data we obtained, from the sources mentioned at the end of the paper. This 82% increase is due to the launch of new games, such as DOOM: Eternal, or Animal Crossings – New Horizons.
Figure – Number of Steam users as a result of COVID-19 pandemic worldwide (millions). Source: Washington Post
Figure – Increase in sales and downloads of Plague Inc. as a result of COVID-19. Source: Priori Data
Figure – COVID-19: Pokémon Go player spending during global pandemic 2020 – $ millions. Source: Sensor Tower
CONCLUSIONS & RECCOMENDATIONS
As a result of writing this bachelor's thesis, I can say that now I understand much better the ways in which this industry works, as well as the opportunities that those working in this field have, the innovations that have taken place and what will happen in the future. In the following lines, I will summarize the conclusions I have drawn as well as the recommendations I would make to video content producers, to the major players in the console manufacturing industry, and service providers in this field.
First of all, the natural conclusion that I think everyone agrees with is that although the value and the dimensions of this industry have grown exponentially in the recent decades, there is always room for innovation. I believe that in the coming years, the games will be designed to function in a deep symbiosis with artificial intelligence, and will be perfectly integrated with the daily lifestyle of users. I believe that manufacturers will focus on developing high-resolution content, such as current 4K standards or technology that, although now in its beta stage, will certainly evolve in the future, namely 8K. As TVs get bigger and bigger, and with a screen that renders clearer and more contrasting colors, video game manufacturers are forced to keep up with media developments, because graphics errors and time delays the game, i.e. the lag, will be much more visible and annoying, and will directly affect the user experience.
Another innovation I think will be present in the forefront in the coming years is that of open world games. This concept represents the area in which the action takes place, as well as the way in which the player interacts with the elements in the background, in other words, the attention to detail. For example, consider in particular the Grand Theft Auto series. This extremely well-known title owes its success to the complexity which it has. We see every day on the market games with car racing, tennis, football, Tetris, etc., but they are all focused only on the main activity, it is not possible to do anything else. The GTA series includes a city where everything is possible, you interact with people, you can use cars, motorcycles, planes, boats and even submarines, you can play from the perspective of many characters, each with its own identity, and you can even be an animal, a cat running through the woods. This concept is called open-world, and has proven to be hugely successful, because players no longer feel compelled to do the same activity repeatedly, but can enhance their creativity and imagination. Therefore, following the research I have conducted, I believe that this aspect will develop a lot in the future.
As for the video console market, I think it has already reached a level of saturation that is quite difficult for other manufacturers to penetrate. The main 3 players, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have absolute supremacy both in numbers, namely market share and sales, and in user preferences. Being in the field for a long time, their products have been perfected and have a very high degree of quality, and due to their mass production, they offer an excellent value for money, which for a new company, which is just entering the market, would be a very demanding task.
As for content producers, i.e. video games, I believe that the situation is completely different, and there is a constant space for young people to materialize their creativity and spirit of innovation, and to create content that quickly reaches the first place.
In connection with this aspect, at national level, I consider that the Romanian state must support these companies, because it has all the tools through which Romania can be noticed internationally in this field. Romanian IT companies could benefit from special facilities, such as subsidies, low interest loans, maintaining the tax exemption regime and developing it, limiting the number of hours that employees in the IT field of large companies are required to work, because it is extremely demanding to sit at the computer for a long time, and can damage long-term vision.
The state can intervene in favor of the development of this industry locally and by promoting it in schools, because in today's educational system, computer science is focused on writing lines of code for programs that are outdated, and focuses more on repetitive actions than on stimulating students' creativity and developmental spirit.
Another recommendation I would make to video game makers is to better integrate them with the platforms that are used. Nowadays, a PlayStation 4 console can run a single CD, and when the user wants to change the game, he has to get up from the couch, take out the old CD, put it back in the case, take out the new CD of the game that he wants to run from the current case, insert it in the console and return to the couch. This annoying process, which has no place in an industry where, after all, it is all about relaxation and having a good time, damages the user experience, although it can be avoided with relatively low costs. I believe that manufacturers should increase the number of CD slots, so that they can store more CDs, in a similar way that in-car multimedia systems can store up to 6 CDs, and are capable of changing them automatically, by pressing a button, without involving additional effort, and the process does not last more than 3 seconds.
I also think that the controllers can be improved, by designing them with removable batteries, because everyone hates the moment when they run out of battery and have to look for the charging cable, stop the game and put it to charge.
Finally, I would like to mention that after writing this paper I found out things I did not know, I understood much better the effort behind the games that many of us enjoy every day, from the short ones we play on the phone while waiting for the subway, the ones that develop our ability to react and concentrate, such as puzzles, logic games, to the most complex ones that we enjoy with our friends at the weekend.
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