ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the contemporary games industry and examines the growing value in financial terms of the industry in comparison to other cultural industries and the diversification of its core sub-sectors. It explores the emergence, decline and persistence of the top transnational corporations by revenue, sub-sector and location. Digital games are mostly produced by commercial companies, although quasi-public and public forms also exist. Total revenues and percentage growth figures provide one way to contextualise the value of the games industry compared to the wider cultural industries. Sales of games on console and handheld still dominated globally in 2011, but the overall trend was downwards. Prior to 2006 a key trend in the digital games industry was vertical integration across all stages of the value chain – from production to publishing and distribution – and attempts to capture economies of scale and control creativity.
