Video games D mock Flashcards
What are the 3 theories for Video Games?
Curran and Seaton (power and media industries)
Livingstone and Lunt (Regulation)
Hesmondhalgh (Cultural industries)
What are the 4 audience theories?
Bandura (media effects)
Hall (Reception theory)
Jenkins (Fandom)
Shirky (‘End of audience’ theory)
In 2021, the value of the global video games market was estimated to be $___._ billion.
In 2012, the value of the global video games market was estimated to be $__._ billion.
$138.4 billion
$52.8 billion
Globally, there are about . billion gamers.
2.6 billion global gamers
Give 3 countries that had the most online gamers in 2023:
China
USA
Brazil
Japan
UK
Germany
Australia
All devices have seen a usage downturn since the pandemic-era gaming boom in ____.
2020
Give 6 of 11 technological developments:
Facial recognition
Voice recognition
Gesture controls
Amazing graphics
High-definition displays
Virtual reality
Augmented reality
Wearable gaming
Mobile gaming
Cloud gaming
On-Demand Gaming
Around 20 years ago, games were considered a _____ entertainment medium. Today, they are __________ and played across all generations and sections of society.
niche
mainstream
Give 3 of 5 audience appeals of video games?
MMORPG (Massively multi-player online role-playing game)
Persistent worlds
CRPG (Computer role-playing game)
Augmented Reality
Avatar
Industry Value Chain: Production
2 points
Funding - investments in the video games industry are growing
Design and creative - the game is developed creatively by artists, designers, and developers.
Regulation: What does PEGI (Pan-European Game Information) do?
PEGI provides age classifications for video games sold in 38 European countries.
In the UK, it is against the law for a retailer to sell to people under the recommended age.
What other thing does PEGI do as well as providing age classifications?
PEGI gives tips for parents on how to ensure children play video games safely and responsibly
Distribution and Circulation:
2 points
Hardware - game hardware providers (eg. Microsoft, Apple, Sony, and Nintendo)
End User - predominately make but changed in recent years, particularly with the advent of mobile gaming
The gaming industry is c___________. The industry is growing, and and potential for s______ is immense.
competitive
success
Give an example of how high-risk the video games industry is.
In September 2024, just week after its launch, Sony withdrew its game Concord, which was supposed to be the next Overwatch, because it completely failed to take off.
How much did the game Concord reportedly cost to develop?
$400 million
Why did Sony withdraw Concord from the market?
It sold fewer than 25,000 copies in its two weeks on the market
How did Sony survive the failure of Concord?
They survived due to horizontal integration -> they could take the hit due to other successful games
The Assassin’s Creed franchise is published by _______.
Ubisoft
The Assassin’s Creed __________ encompasses 13 incarnations of the game, plus spin-offs. It is an action adventure, open world game, played from a third person ___________; each game is set in a historical setting with a new story and time period.
franchise
perspective
From 2007 (the introduction of Assassin’s Creed) to 2022, more than ____ million copies of the game had been sold.
This was helped by the launch of Assassin’s Creed: ________ in 2020, which sold more units in its first week than any other game in the series.
However, games in the back catalogue of the franchise continue to be p_______.
more than 200 million copies
Valhalla
popular
How did industry structures and economic contexts help Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla? Give 2 points
-> Franchises increase economic viability and establishes brand identity for audiences.
-> Technological advances shape games with the inclusion of complex gameplay.
-> Production techniques have become more innovative, so there is higher competitiveness and game demand.
-> Video games are culturally and financially significant in Japan, Europe, and the USA.
-> Game ownership is a significant element to gaming financial success.
How have developments in technology affected Assassin’s Creed’s release? Give 2 examples
1) Tapped into the increasing popularity of mobile games -> released on PS Vita, with high-quality graphics and features associated with smartphones (eg. high quality graphics, wifi, touchscreen, 3G, Bluetooth)
2) AC:V released in 2020 to coincide with the new console launches (PS5, Xbox Series X) and the pandemic-era boom in gaming .
3) Protection of children across Europe, with PEGI.
Ubisoft continually updates and improves AC:V, adding free content, modes, and challenges. This also resolved bugs. Why did they do this?
To maintain and increase their gaming audience, and improve their reliability.
AC:Valhalla was the biggest l_____ of an Assassin’s Creed game in the history of the franchise.
launch
What happened with AC:V on 29th April 2020?
The journey began.
Boss Logic made the announcement.
There was an 8-hour livestream on YouTube revealing the game setting.
What happened with AC:V on 30th April 2020?
The cinematic trailer was premiered to positive reviews
What happened with AC:V on 7th May 2020?
‘In-game’ footage was shown, which was actually edited, causing backlash online. People began ‘downvoting’ the game and the next day Ubisoft and Xbox issued an apology.
On the 12th of May 2020, the __________ composers were revealed.
soundtrack
On the 24th of June 2020, the game’s Creative Director stepped down, following ____________ about his personal life.
allegations
In September 3020, the AC Sisterhood ________ was revealed on social media
tattoo
On 13th July 2020, a number of YouTube channels, news outlets, and community members were granted early access to a ____ version of AC Valhalla.
beta
List 2 products or tie-ins launched for AC Valhalla in July 2020:
Dark Horse Comics released a series of comics
Music from the game was released
Charli Cohen T-shirts
A novel using the characters and settings of the game
Reebok trainers
Does Curran and Seaton’s theory fit the structure of the video games industry?
Not entirely.
They aim for profit more than power.
Henry Jenkins said what?
Fans are textual poachers
What is Stuart Hall’s reception theory?
Dominant position: encoder’s message fully understood and accepted
Negotiated position: encoder’s message acknowledged, but the message is adapted to fit the decoder
Oppositional position: encoder’s message is understood, but the decoder disagrees, reading it in a contract or opposite way.
