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The present study seeks to trace the unionization process of a global top 10 video game company (Company N) in which workers formed the first enterprise union in South Korea's game sector. Drawing upon the analytical framework of Kelly's (1998) mobilization theory, the authors investigated what motivated workers to form a union and what factors facilitated unionization.

This study used a qualitative research method on a single case study basis. The authors collected 41 in-depth interviews with game developers, full-time union staff from the case company and union leaders in their affiliated union, as well as game journalists, labour attorneys, and human resource professionals in the video game industry. The authors had their original data supplemented and triangulated by archival data including union letters and other documents and media reports. They analysed the data using computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS).

There are three key findings. First, in the game sector, a high barrier against unionization exists, arising from industry characteristics such as a project-based work system, high mobility, reputation-based hiring, meritocracy, and a continuous influx of game-loving young developers. Hence, although the time was ripe for worker activism, latent grievances failed to be converted into real collective mobilization, resulting in non-organized workplaces for the past decades. Second, the mandatory labour-management negotiations arising from a legal change acted as a key catalyst for unionization at Company N. The newly elected three employee representatives came to identify and develop their own collective interests through the direct experience of negotiations, which greatly augmented their negative emotions and improved their legal consciousness. These three representatives could identify numerous deep-rooted problems, attribute these problems to their employer, and realize that they are ordinary salaried workers different from their employer. Going through the three-month negotiation and post-negotiation period, a set of ordinary game developers transformed themselves into natural union leaders who started a union in the game industry, which was traditionally non-organized. Third, various layers of external factors, such as a sister union, the upper umbrella union, the changed socio-political atmosphere following the candlelight protests for presidential impeachment, and the improved union image facilitated the unionization at Company N.

This study offers practical implications to governments, union activists, and employers in the game sector and more broadly in the tech industry, where labour-management conflicts are escalating across the globe.

Our study of a rare unionization event in the difficult game sector offers a nuanced understanding of mobilization and its process. Theoretically, by introducing the dynamic process of natural leader emergence and spontaneous union formation in a young industry where neither pre-existing leadership nor extant union influence exists, this study suggests that the mobilization process is more complex and variegated than suggested by Kelly's study and subsequent studies. Therefore, this study can advance the current discussion of mobilization mechanisms in the field of industrial relations. Our study also contributes to current research by introducing collective mobilization in a new context, i.e. the young, dynamic game industry in a non-Western country, which is a context that has been under-studied thus far.

This paper aims to shed some light on the history of the Chinese videogames industry, to document the growth of the leading companies and reveal how they have been morphing into platforms delivering constellations of apps and digital content (audiovisual, films, music, literature, video streaming […]). The paper tracks the development of digital services through the prism of videogames thereby showing how this industry emerged out of the deployment of the internet.

The paper provides an overview and a synthesis of what is known about the Chinese game industry, particularly based on consultancy documents and publications from firms. The paper is based on desk research, a review of literature and trade press and the analysis of the annual reports of the leading players (NetEase, Tencent […]).

The rise of videogames and the creation of specific company’s “ecosystems” illustrate the capacity of the industry to innovate and its significance for the Chinese economy. It reveals that gaming has been a cornerstone of many Chinese technology companies. The (young) companies came up with the innovative business models (FTP, virtual items) that were required to further expand the market. They found new ways to interact with their customers through communities and various tools.

The paper relies on consultancy documents and publications from firms on heterogeneous data from industry and consultants. This approach comes with some limitations from a methodological viewpoint. It allows documenting the historical trends and describing the industrial landscape but not to qualify the relationships among players. Besides, the use of these sources leads to a greater focus on business models and a more limited one on the policy dimension. The latter is often perceived only through the glasses of the companies.

The data provided are meant to be useful to become familiar with the Chinese games industry.

The paper indicates that the online game industry is a complex web of activities with tensions and contradictions between stakeholders (industry, government and consumers). In the case of China, there is a conflict between the willingness to liberalize the economy and the will to maintain an ideological monopoly through cultural industries.

Little research has been devoted to the role of videogames in emerging economies, to its specific features and to the relationships with the media industry and the information and communications technology sector. The contribution of this “digital native” to the production and distribution of digital content remains less studied. The paper provides an up-to-date overview of the Chinese case.

This paper examines the changes in Macao's gaming public policy following the 2022 revision of the gaming law. The revision introduces more regulations on the gaming industry and highlights the gaming industry's contribution to economic diversification, anti-money laundering and national security. The paper analyzes the economic, cultural and political factors that motivated these changes and evaluates the effectiveness of the new gaming public policy.

This paper compares the different versions of Macao's gaming laws and the gaming laws of Nevada and New Jersey, using a qualitative approach to interpret the meanings behind the law text.

The paper reveals that Macao's gaming public policy has changed significantly. The revised policy focuses more on economic diversification than the growth of the gaming industry and imposes more responsibilities on the gaming operators. It predicts that Macao's gaming industry will face more difficulties in increasing its market share in the next decade.

The findings of this paper can help the Macao government assess its gaming public policy and other governments learn from the complex situation when developing their public policies.

The findings of this paper can enhance the understanding of Macao's gaming laws and the reality of Macao's gaming industry.

This paper is the first in academia to address Macao's new public policy toward gaming.

The purpose of this paper is to identify, characterize, and discuss paradigm shifts that have occurred in the video game industry with some emphasis on competition and competitiveness.

Basically, the paper depends upon a review of the literature associated with video game development. Past history is taken from texts and academic papers dealing with the subject. More current observations are taken from the business and popular press. These observations are placed within a context associated with the classic papers on industry evolution, paradigms, paradigm shifts, competition, and competitiveness.

It is difficult to capture present shifts in such a fast‐growing industry, but these shifts seem clear: the original entry of video games into the arcade sector that led to the industry and the demise of pinball; the development of the home cartridge and console that made the industry a home‐based phenomenon; the entry of independent game‐publishers that made the industry a two‐tiered one; and the development of massively multiplayer online role‐playing games (MMORPGs) that changed the way games are played.

The video game industry is an interesting one to follow. To an extent, its development characterizes our generation – fast paced, technologically oriented, and targeted toward the young and young at heart. This paper takes the subject away from a historical or anecdotal approach and places it within the context of industry evolution, paradigms, and paradigm shifts. It thus should be of value to students of not only video games, but also the evolution of rapidly growing industries and establishment of competitive advantages.

Indie developers are part of the creative fringe of the video game industry, fashioning an identity for themselves as a community committed to the development of video games as a cultural expression and art form. In playing this role, money-making is ambiguous inasmuch as economic return is honorable if such interests remain unarticulated and execute minimal influence on the development work process, while the possibility of producing a successful commercial video game is simultaneously one of the primary motivations for new industry entrants. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

The paper reports on the empirical material drawn from a study of indie video game developers in Sweden, a leading country for video game development.

To reconcile tensions between video game development in terms of being both cultural/and artistic production and business activity, easily compromising the perceived authenticity of the subject in the eyes of audiences (e.g. hardcore gamers), indie developers distinguish between monetary motives ex ante and compensation ex post the release of the game. Indie developers thus emphasize the metonymic function of money as this not only indicates economic value and currency but also denotes a number of business practices that indie developers have otherwise avoided in their career planning as they believe these practices would restrain their creativity and skills.

The study contributes to the scholarship on video game development, the literature on creative industries, and the economic sociology literature examining the social meaning of money and how social norms and values are manifested in professional ideologies and practices.

In less than three decades the entertainment software industry has emerged as a huge industry, with sales larger than Hollywood movie box office sales. Yet, little is known about this industry. Stereotypes about the industry may not be correct. This paper seeks to address this knowledge gap.

The paper identifies what is known, and what needs to be known. The paper reviews the literature and adds data from the most recent reports available.

The literature has been slow to address this industry. It has not even been clear what to call this industry. (Some people still call it the video game industry.) The most basic marketing issues still need to be researched, i.e. customer benefits sought and segmentation. A typology of game genres is proposed.

This paper is the first overview of the entertainment software industry from a marketing perspective.

This paper aims to shed some light on the role of video games within the media industry and IT sector, on its contribution to the production and distribution of digital content in emerging economies. It offers a case study on the role of mobile devices as a factor of transformation and shows how under changing socio–economic conditions, the transformations enabled the creation of digital ecosystems and innovative business models.

The paper is based on desk research, a review of literature and trade press and comments from experts and industry players.

The paper argues that as the internet is going mobile, driven by data – mostly video – the new mobile platforms are becoming the key for the distribution of content and mobile games. Whether it is the history of browser games in China, mobile games in India or PC games in Russia, each national gaming industry has required a unique strategy for making money, building on some prominent cultural factors and adapting to the local economic conditions. The paper reveals that video games are now clearly a vital part of digital content production in these countries, while stressing upon the role of public policies.

The paper relies mostly on industry and consultancy data, as in such a fast-changing environment official data even when accessible are in most cases too old to remain relevant to identify the trends and the fast changing stakes. This calls for some caution about the data. Therefore, the data used should be treated as just signals of potential trends, sufficient to provide an appropriate overview of the evolution of the global mobile ecosystem.

This paper shows that the video games industry can serve as a pivot for the ICT industry. Besides, this prompts upstream and downstream industries of the entire digital entertainment market to thrive.

The paper shows that companies from emerging markets companies have been betting on a combination of factors: the development of the economies, the growth of the mobile market, emerging middle-classes and young customers. It provides a growth model that appears to be close to a “regular” industrial growth model.

Although there is a growing academic literature on the video games industry, few research have been devoted to specific issues of emerging economies and to the role of video games within the media industry and IT sector.

While the COVID-19 virus has been spreading worldwide, some studies have related the pandemic with various aspects of accounting and therefore emphasized the importance of accounting research in understanding the impact of COVID-19 on society as a whole. Recent studies have looked into such an impact on various industries such as retail and agriculture. The current study aims at applying a sociological framework, sociology of worth (SOW), to the gaming industry in Macau, the largest operator of state-allowed gambling and entertainment in China, which will allow for its development during the COVID-19 pandemic to be charted.

The study uses the theory of SOW as a framework and collects data from various sources, such as the government, gaming operators and the public, to create timelines and SOW frameworks to analyze the impact of the virus on the gaming industry and the society as a whole.

Detailed content analysis and the creation of different SOW matrices determined that the notion of a “lonely economy” during a time of a critical event may be ameliorated in the long term through compromises of the different worlds and actors of the SOW.

Though largely theory-based, this study offers a thorough account of the COVID-19 incident for both the government and the gaming industry to reflect on and to consider new ways to fight against degrowth caused by disasters or crises.

The SOW framework divides society into different worlds of different worths. The current study shows how the worths of the different worlds are congruent during normal periods, and how cracks appear between them when a sudden crisis, such as COVID-19, occurs. The article serves as a social account of how these cracks are formed and how could they be resolved through compromise and reconstruction.

This study is a first attempt to apply SOW to a controversial industry (gaming) while the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are ongoing. It offers a significant contribution to the social accounting literature through its consideration of the combination of unprecedented factors in a well-timed study that pays close attention to analyses and theoretical elaboration.

The purpose of this study is to identify and evaluate the video game ecosystem development in the context of socioeconomic and technological progress while analyzing the role of stakeholders in the video game industry for regional markets' growth.

The paper exploits technological and socioeconomic data in 25 countries grouped into the regions, as a methodological approach that allows identifying and evaluating the determinants of the video game industry's ecosystem development. The authors applied econometric modeling to understand technological, economic and social determinants forming video gaming industry growth in regional markets.

Different types of stakeholders are involved in the video game industry performing particular functions. Using econometric modeling for advanced and developing economies countries, we have found that different stakeholder groups and their engagement dynamics in the video gaming industry directly depend on socioeconomic and technological effects in certain regions of the world.

This study contributes to the knowledge within forming creative clusters around video gaming industry in developed and developing economies countries. The findings bridge the gap between quantitative and qualitative research in stakeholder-related characteristics, and key factors affecting the development of the video gaming market. The analyzed database of industry revenues within specific global regions shed the light on the future functionality of the ecosystem development in the new normal world.

The aim of this paper is to present a model of a university–industry partnership in gaming education and research. It analyzes the interactions and knowledge transfer between the two parties in Macao.

This paper adopts a qualitative case study approach to share experiences of a university based in Macao as a single case to present its informal partnership with the industry in the area of gaming education and research.

This paper has shown that the partnership has provided clear benefits to both parties and the government is an influential power that can enhance collaboration. Although the informal partnership involves considerable time and efforts, it is flexible in comparison to the formal approach. Despite this, the knowledge transfer tends to focus on general issues to avoid being appropriated by competitors.

This demonstrates how a public university in Macao has achieved an informal industry–university partnership, which requires the commitment and understanding of both parties for the bi-directional exchange of knowledge. Such knowledge needs to be value-enhancing for the industry to keep the partnership grow and prosper.

This study puts forward an original approach to an informal industry–university partnership in the area of gaming education and research.