Tim Booth

Industry - Video Games

Companies - IGN (news/reviews site)
- Electronic Arts (Publisher)
- Rockstar Games (developer)

Sources - Official sites, corporate sections of official sites, gaming blogs, academic material

Possible Questions

• How are independent developers affected by publishers who own developers? ie have creative control.
• How is the development of PC technology influenced by the video games industry?
• Who/What makes up the value chain of the video game industry and what effects do they have on each other?

Brief Findings

• Publishers who own developers often follow short term trends rather than take risks but may know what consumers want more so than independent developers.
• A large percentage of PC’s are purchased by gamers demanding fast equipment to run latest games therefore increasing the speed of CPU development.
• Value chain made up of publishers, talent (developers, artists etc), production, distribution/marketing, hardware, end users.