For my essay I will be examining the video game industry and the sustainability of said industry in the future. A interview with president of square Enix ( Historic game development and production company) Yoichi Wada poke about how the reboot of the prolific series ” Tomb Raider” was a ” extraordinary loss” even though is sold a total of 3.4 million copies in the games lifespan. The production cost and investor spending on the product came to a total of 100 million dollars USD an terribly Inflated amount compared to what the game actually made. This expectation from investors and producers lead to a lose-lose scenario where the game couldn’t’ve have made its money back due to various factors outside of the games control, this lead to the eventual selling of the property and the effective discontinuing of the franchise.
This isn’t a uncommon appearance for the games industry multiples game franchises have been put to the sword due to poor sales, lack of interest, lack of faith or a mix of all three despite critical and sometimes objective commercial success. This has only gotten worse as major game companies struggle to make games that can satiate the unreasonable sales expectations of investors and making back a near in insurmountable amount of money. Due to this never ending rat race culture surrounding the video game business has lead to lower quality games despite higher budgets, extremely unhealthy working conditions and amoral anti-consumer business practices. This culture has lead to the decrease in sustainability of games and if it continuities down this path will lead to the eventual collapse of the industry.
SOURCES
1. Washington Post recession article
Background: This article from the new York Times looks at how the growing inflation rate is effecting The games industry and the possibility of a of a video game recission. Its been shown that the major games companies have had a decline in revenue due to the covid bump raising sales finally subsiding as as well as inflation negatively effecting their player base.
How I intend to use it: The information provided here can be used as a good look at the current fears games companies have and it explains what type of investors invest in games and what they want out of their investments. This will show how disconnected the expectations are for games compared to the capabilities of the market
2. Interview with a Video Games company president
Background: This article summarizes the thoughts of president of Capcom Haruhiro Tsujimoto on the topic of game prices. He believes the cost of games needs to raised in order to be sustainable for their company to succeed. The price to produce a AAA game has increased a hundred fold and the price of games has really stayed the same only now changing the standard 60$ pricing to 70$.
How I intend to use it: The thoughts of A president of a games company gives me a chance to show the mindset of a industry mover someone whos decisions have real weight to them and how they feel about the future of games. This is prove my point further by showing how a industry leader thinks games arent sustainable as they are now and changes need to be made as well as add more context for the reason of said changes.
Background: This paper provides needed context on the work conditions of being in the games industry. The paper tackles crunch, toxic workplace culture, the lack of job security and many falsehoods about this ” dream job”.
How I useed it: I will use this source to show how toxic workplace culture is cultivated through the games industry’s due to current practice’s. I will reference specific sections of this paper when talking about the human element of the games industry. Game companies exploit their workers with full knowing that this is a dream job for them making them work inhuman hours to the point where employees break during a major game development cycle burning out completely or being physically unable to work anymore causing turnover.
4. Monetization is the Message: A Historical Examination of Video Game Microtransactions
Background: This paper looks at the history of microtransactions in games. I tackles the predatory and anti consumers strategies companies use to encourage the purchase of microtransactions and the ethics of them in free and paid games.
How I used it: This paper will be refenced when Im proving how anti consumer pratices have led to the further downfall of games. Microtransactions are used to make extra money from games because the base purchase of the game isnt enough to cover production costs leading to the need to employ predatory strategies to make their money back milking their consumer base and damaging good will.
5. The role of video game quality in financial markets
Background: This Paper looks that the correlation between product quality and games sales. It also tackles the direct effects of game reviews using trading theory and noting the effects a bad product has on sales based on game size and expectations
How I used it: The effects of quality when it comes to game sales are essential when talking about the potential crash of the games industry. I intend to use the examples of games here as well as my own examples using the methods the paper provides to show how the games industry tries to crush coal into diamonds by crushing its employees and costumer base in the process.
6. The return of the $70 video game has been a long time coming
Background: This article looks at the rising prices for games in the industry. The correlation is made between the prices of now and the prices of the early industry. Calculating the inflation of past products the article proves how even 70$ titles are not going to be enough in the future.
How I used it: This was one of the resources I used but did not quote directly in my essay. I used its information about inflation to help me articulate how expensive games were back then while making the connection about how those prices were one of the core reasons why the 1983 crash happened.
7.The video games industry is broken and will not survive for long
Background: The Short article by goes over a brief history of the first gaming crash and the article was revised because of the amount of layoffs happening in the industry in October( these layoffs are still happening as of December 3rd). The article then makes a point to argue that the games industry as of right now is unstainable because traditional AAA titles are to expensive to make and the transition to a more free-to-play pricing model is promising but still unstainable.
How I used It: This was used as a jumping-off point, one of the first articles I looked at. It had a lot of the same ideas I’ve had including the unsatiable nature of the industry’s personnel wise which caused me to research further on the crunch culture in the gaming industry.
8. Why is the games industry so burdened with crunch? It starts with labor laws
Background: Michaël Thompson from the Washington post drives into how its “legal” for game developers to overwork theyre employees. The answer comes from some outdated labor laws and the contracts employees sign when joining a major publisher.
How I used it: I needed some background on the crunch culture in the gaming industry and how it came to be. This article provided some method to the madness and helped me look for a more scholarly source delving deeper in this subject.
9.Microtransactions Are Great For Game Companies, Less So For Players
Background: This article covers the growing use of microtransactions in fully priced and the reasons why game companies are implementing them. The short answer is that in order to make back what they spent on these games they need a extra source of revenue to make it worth it and due to the fact free-to-play strategies are so lucrative they’ve been added which makes the games more anti-consumer.
How I used it: Wanted to use this article at first but I searched for the main ideas from this article using scholarly rhetoric I found a better source so it helped me find scholarly sources I did quote directly in my paper.
10.How Gen Z is reshaping the gaming industry
Background: The Article describes how Gen z and future generations play games more than any other generation combined. The games industry is relying on Gen Z to carry them financially as a the average Gen Z gamer pays at least 50$ a year on top of their full purchase and are more Likely to buy microtransactions than previous generations
How I used it: Was used to show how The games industry relies on predatory practices such as microtransactions to keep themselves sustainable. That sustainability being put under heavier pressure as inflation causes everything to get more expensive creating a money crunch.
11.The once ‘recession-proof’ video game industry is looking wobbly this year
Background: The article explains how the once rock-solid game industry is getting a little unstable. As the COVID-19 boost subsides and inflation continues to grow as well as demand for new consoles being impossible due to a chip shortage required to make the consoles.
How I used it: Helped strengthen my arguments surrounding the problem with inflation being stated in multiple sources. The console shortage did not make it to the main essay but was in my mind when writing the causal argument when sustainability came around.
12. The 1983 Video Game Crash and a History Lesson for Lina Khan
Background: A brief history lesson on the causes and effects of the 1983 video game crash detailing its rise and fall.
How I used it: Was pivotal in creating the definition argument and the opening paragraph for the main essay. Along with tidbits from other articles I was able to make connections to the failures of the old industry to mistakes being made in the new one
13.What is a stock market crash? Understanding the causes and consequences can help investors prepare
Background: This article by business insider describes a market crash and provides examples of how and why this occurs in the stock market
How I used it: I used in it my definition argument and in my final essay to help define the parameters of a market crash to my reader to understand what makes a crash a crash.
14. Tomb Raider fails to reach sales target
Background: The article explains how a title like Tomb Raider which sold over a million copies can still underpreform.
How I used it: This was what first sparked my thesis. When I read this article and several other articles when it came out it really did not make sense to me how something that can sell a million copies can be seen as a failure especially when those numbers were celebrated in times past. I used this article as a good refresher and helped find out what specifically i wanted to research which lead to my original proposal + 5
15. Why Are There So Many Layoffs In Gaming Right Now?
Background: This article reports on the dramatic increase of layoffs in the gaming industry attributing it to the massive and unsustainable budgets. It also poses a possible solution being a massive downsizing of game budgets and a optimizing of company time.
How I used it: As this is a relatively recent development I used it to update some information from all my portfolio papers regarding the negative effects of the current gaming landscape.
Counterintuitive Fall 2024 
Couple style notes first, Anonymous:
Your opening sentence
uses junk language that should be trimmed to achieve better flow.
—You don’t have to examine “the industry” AND “its sustainability.”
—That will eliminate the need to repeat with “said industry.”
—And sustainability couldn’t possibly project back to the past, so “in the future” is redundant.
The new sentence:
might not seem to have much punch, but at least it’s obvious that it could be more substantive in its edited form.
One more:
I understand that you want to start all your Background sections with “This article” or “This source.” But starting with “This” is not a good writing strategy. It usually indicates that you left something undone in the prior sentence. Four examples from your early paragraphs:
—This expectation from investors and producers lead to a lose-lose scenario.
—This led to the eventual selling of the property.
—This isn’t an uncommon appearance for the games industry.
—This has only gotten worse.
I do relish hearing all the horror stories you appear to be familiar with, Anonymous. But I don’t quite see how “game franchises” that are plagued by “poor sales, lack of interest, lack of faith or a mix of all three” can be described as “critical and sometimes objective commercial success.” Surely no game (maker) (franchise) can succeed commercially with poor sales or lack of interest. But a game COULD fail commercially with critical success AND lack of interest. It’s confusing. So maybe you don’t mean that all three shortcomings can result in commercial success.
1. Washington Post recession article
I think I get this one. The COVID “stay home and play games” Boom created unrealistic investor expectations. The natural fallback to pre-COVID demand is hard for investors to accept. You can call that a Recession if you want to, but it should have been expected.
2. Interview with a Video Games company president
I think I get this one, too. He’s lying.
I thought I might make a comparison between the “cost of making a Hollywood movie” today versus 30 years ago or so. I figured it wouldn’t be anywhere near 100x higher. I needed just a minute to find a 20-year comparison (1999-2019) Here’s a chart from https://stephenfollows.com/how-has-the-cost-of-making-a-movie-changed-over-the-past-twenty-years/
The numbers vary by movie genre, but the percentage of movies with budgets over $100million should be WAY UP, right?
Not really. 4% became 12%. That’s a tripling not 100x. And it’s not a tripling of costs for an average movie, just a reflection of the rising percentage of high-budget movies.
Now, especially animated movies, you would think, because they used to be made by hand but now require massive teams of animators, colorists, sequencers, etc., SHOULD parallel the costs of making upscale video games, BUT THEY DON’T show a 100x increase, or even a 2x increase:
Their budgets have gone DOWN since 2012. (AND, these numbers are not adjusted for inflation, so costs have actually gone DOWN for animated movies since 1999.) So . . . what is Haruhiro Tsujimoto spending all HIS money on?
I’m going to bother some other members of your class now, Anonymous. I wonder if what I’ve shown you here is valuable. I’d love to have your reactions.
Remember, this post gets expanded with whatever other sources you consult. Be sure to add new material as you gather it. When it’s complete, we’ll change the name of the post to “Annotated Bibliography” and it will go right into your Portfolio.
Provisionally graded. Revisions are pretty much required for this post-in-progress, and Regrades will happen every time I become aware of an update, including AFTER it goes into your Portfolio.