ABSTRACT
We have already noted in Chapter 1 that videogames have existed, in one form or another, for over 40 years, and it will be clear to those who have even a cursory awareness of the products of the industry that videogames have changed significantly both formally and aesthetically. Indeed, it is hard to imagine that the primitive blips of light that formed the bats and ball of tennis-game Pong could be separated from the lavish, near-photorealism of Metal Gear Solid 2, Halo, or Metroid Prime by only 30 years, or that videogames could have so quickly become the global social, cultural and economic force they are today. In fact, far from being a smooth transition from the hobbyist’s workshop to the development studio, the history of the videogame industry is one of turbulence, peak and trough. For a period during the 1980s, for example, under the weight of substandard product and consumer apathy, the global videogames industry fell into such a decline that it seemed unlikely it would ever recover. Since then, the situation has more than recovered and we have seen in Chapter 1 that videogames have (re)emerged as an extremely significant socio-cultural form and that the videogames industry is a major global concern.
