It is abundantly clear today that gaming is a bastion of big business, indeed it is often quoted that the games today is worth more than the industry. This is particularly true for the UK, where the games industry grosses more annually than cinema, video and rentals combined. In economics terms, it is easy to see why this should be the case (despite the fact that watching is still the more mainstream activity): games are unlikely to cost more than £3-4 million for a high-quality title (and often much less), and at £40 need to sell far fewer numbers than an equivalent movie release to break even. That is not to say, of course, that making it in the industry is easy. But the rewards are there for a successful product.

One distinction that must immediately be drawn is the one that exists between different sectors of the industry, and between publishers and developers particularly. A look at some recent game charts for North America, and shows that certain publishers dominate the top ten positions in these territories – companies like Electronic Arts, Nintendo, or appear several times across the three charts. Indeed, a comparison could be made between game publishers and movie studios or record labels. Each of these sectors control the publishing of their respective media, and more importantly, control the financing of new products. In effect, it is the game publishers, the movie studios and the record labels that dictate what gets made and what does not by selection of which projects receive finance.

There are, however, certain fundamental differences between the business models of the movie and industries and the games industry. The principal difference is the interaction that publishers / movie studios / record labels have with their respective counterparts on the creative side of production. Movie studios, for example, very rarely work with a counterpart ‘movie-developer’ per se – more often certain individuals (directors) become attached to scripts and the required employees are hired as needed for each movie. It is rare, though not unheard of, for the entire cast and crew of a movie to work together on their subsequent projects. Equally, the music industry demonstrates similar features. Record labels develop relationships with a stable of artists, and while persistent contact does develop between figurehead artists and other musicians or producers, more often than not these background musicians will work with many different people over the course of their careers.

The games industry is, of course, different. Many of the massive publishers have in-house teams, but in contrast to others the games industry still has a very important place for independent developer companies. Many serve as talent incubators, as well as repositories for some of the industry’s more original ideas. In this regard, increased corporate dominance has left their importance unchanged. What has altered, however, is the ease with which such companies could retain their independence. The key factor in this equation is simply the cost of game production. Producing a hit game is no easier or more difficult now than it ever was, creatively speaking, but it is vastly more expensive, with average production costs of somewhere in the region of £1.2 million.