Video games in the United States

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United States gaming market by revenue per year (2015)

Video games in the United States are among the fastest growing entertainment industries in the country. According to a 2010 study by the Entertainment Software Association , the game industry accounts for $ 4.9 billion of the economy in the United States. There are estimates that the global game industry will reach $ 70.1 billion in 2015.

In ESA's 2013 statistics , 58% of Americans said they played video games , and the average American household had at least one game console , PC, or smartphone . All households that have at least one device for playing games stated that they played most often on their game console or on the PC. 36% of American gamers play on their smartphones. 43% of video game consumers believe that games are the best value for the money they invest in compared to other popular forms of entertainment such as movies or music . In 2011, Americans played video games an average of 13 hours a week. In 2013, nearly half of Americans spent more time playing video games than playing board games, watching TV, going to the movies, or watching movies at home. Of all the Americans playing, 62% played online or on site together. The teammate is more of a playmate than an important friend or a close family member. The most common reason parents played video games with their children was because of the shared activity factor or because they were asked to. 52% of parents believed that video games were beneficial for their children in childhood, and 71% of parents with children under the age of 18 see gaming as beneficial for their children's mental stimulation or education.

Demographics

A marine playing a video game
A US Marine soldier plays "Top Gun"

The average age of a US gamer is 35 years and the average video game time of a single US gamer is 13 years. Only 29% of all players are under 18 years of age. The American player population is 59% male and 41% female. Women aged 18 and over make up a larger part of the population than men under 18. The average player is 44 years old, while the average male player is 33 years old.

Market statistics

The best-selling video game console genres were action games , shooters, and sports simulations in 2012. For the PC, the best-selling genres were role-playing , strategy, and casual games . The online gaming sector had the most popular genres of puzzle / trivia, action / strategy, and casual / social. While many American video game developers have been making games for years, Japanese games and companies have made regular annual bestseller lists. US computer and video game sales in 2012 were $ 14.8 billion, down $ 1.6 billion from the previous year. The report on the sales growth indicated a decrease in the number of units sold of 188 million compared to the year 2011 with 245.9 million units. American game consumers generated sales of $ 20.77 billion from their spending. Purchased hard-printed copies of video games still account for the most sales compared to digital video game copies.

history

1940s

The beginning of video games could be fixed in 1940 when the American nuclear physicist Edward Condon designed a computer that could run the traditional game of Nim . Tens of thousands of people played this game on this computer, with the computer winning 90% of all games. Seven years later, an American television pioneer, Thomas T. Goldsmith, Jr. , patented a device that challenged players to aim and fire a target with a firearm on an oscilloscope display.

1950s

In the 1950s, another American, Claude Shannon , wrote basic programming rules for a playing chess computer. At the same time, OXO was created in England in 1952, this implementation was made possible by the inventions and innovations of the Americans. The US military entered the computer age with the hat game, which was invented at the time . This game is considered a war game and features NATO and Soviet commanders at war.

The IBM 701 computer contained games like blackjack and checkers . A later IBM model had a chess program that could be four moves ahead of the players. The '50s also brought about the long forgotten and famous tennis game Pong by Willy Higinbotham .

1960s

The military continued to participate in video games in the 1960s when, shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Department of Defense created a game called STAGE (Simulation of Total Atomic Global Exchange). STAGE was created as political propaganda showing the US how they would win in a thermonuclear war with the Soviet Union. The idea of ​​video games for televisions was made possible by engineer Ralph Baer , and with the help of his team, Bear was able to develop two successful television games. The first interactive media computer game, Spacewar, led the Atari founders to develop an arcade game called Computer Space , the very first arcade game ever.

1970s

The 1970s heralded the birth of video game consoles. The first console, called the Magnavox Odyssey , was released and the Atari company was founded around the same time. This marked the beginning of the development of pong. After Pong was completed, it became the best-selling Christmas product in 1975.

Development of the console went on incredibly quickly. A few years after their invention, game consoles were given microprocessors and programmable ROM modules as game cartridges. Thus, the users could change the game by changing the cassette. Some of the major released consoles during this period were Telstar , Fairchild Channel F , and Atari 2600 .

Arcade games also evolved, and games like Space Invaders could now display high score tables to capture and reflect the best scores . A year later, the game Asteroids built on the idea that the top players could type in their initials.

1980s

The technological advances from the 70s ushered in the beginning of stationary game consoles, also known as Intellivision , in 1980, these had better video quality but were more expensive. Within two years, the Commodore 64 changed the market completely, because it was not only the most powerful console, but also the cheapest. Due to the lower price, the popularity of the video game industry continued to grow and the first video game magazine Electronic Games was printed. Attempts to recreate the success of the Atari 2600 created saturation in the market, causing the North American video game crash in 1983 and thus the game industry in the United States was decimated. With this downturn in the USA, Nintendo was able to successfully introduce its Nintendo Entertainment System in America in 1985 and revitalized the market with the third and fourth generation of home game consoles, such as the Master System , Game Boy , Sega Genesis , Atari 7800 and the TurboGrafx-16 , with systems that support 3D graphics and instead of cassettes with optical media as game storage, again.

1990s

In the early 1990s, the re-launch of the Super-NES , Sony PlayStation , Nintendo 64 , Tamagotchi , and Dreamcast resurrected the ailing video game industry through sales. In that decade, the PlayStation was the most popular console with 20 million units sold.

In 1993, one of the first debates to focus on "violence in video games" began. Senator Joseph Lieberman 's led this debate with a need to ban all violent video games. From this investigation the Entertainment Software Rating Board emerged in 1994; which gives all games a printed age recommendation on their packaging.

2000s

The 2000s brought more attention to Sony with the PlayStation 2 , as there was so much consumer demand for it that the console's availability was affected during the first shipments. The PlayStation 2 is also the best-selling console in the United States of all time. Microsoft and Nintendo also saw this popularity with their own sixth and seventh generation consoles.

The permanent availability of the internet brought the online connection between consoles for multiplayer games as well as a digital sales window for game sales. The digital storefronts also boosted the indie game market, expanding from computers to consoles in that decade. Also have motion control games by Wii consoles more popular.

2010s

Within the 2010s there was a major shift towards casual gaming, mobile gaming on smartphones and tablets. This is due to a wider gaming community, which is attracting more female and older video gamers. The concept of games as a service developed into a trend among developers and publishers to monetize games long after they were released. Following the last decade, many indie games were created that were equal to the big titles and were easier to market thanks to the easier advertising in digital shop windows for PCs, consoles and smartphones. All three major console manufacturers released the next generation of consoles: Xbox One , PlayStation 4 , Wii U, and Nintendo Switch . Important developments in mixed reality games, both in augmented reality and virtual reality , became increasingly popular in the 2010s as the cost of the hardware fell. The esports got a significant market share in the United States after the beginning of its popularity in the East Asian countries.

2020s

Microsoft and Sony announced the successors for their consoles at the end of 2020. Both systems are expected to support high-resolution graphics, real-time ray tracing, game streaming and cloud-based gaming.

Areas of application

Training training

Video game designers require various skills which includes a high level of training in computer graphics, animation, and software design. At the peak of these skills, successful designers need a strong imagination and knowledge of the variations in consoles and operating systems. Programming and hardware are fundamental knowledge when it is remembered that games are sophisticated computer software. To get into this field, many universities offer courses, degrees and certificates in computer programming, computer technology, software development, animation and computer graphics. Internships and apprenticeships are particularly important so that practical experience can be gained. If possible, an upward looking game developer should try freelancing. It is also a good idea to design games with an independent variety of available software. An independent game can be risky to develop. But the finished product gives employers an insight into the designer's own capabilities, almost like a portfolio .

Job market

The United States video game industry remains a living source of job vacancies. Video game companies currently employ, directly or indirectly, more than 120,000 people in 34 countries. Average direct employee compensation is $ 90,000 for total national compensation of $ 2.9 billion.

The current game design job market in the United States is very competitive. However, a 32% increase in software publishing jobs is expected by the Department of Labor. The salary depends on where you work, with whom and what kind of work you do. A first starting point for determining salaries is the International Game Developers Association 's report. This ranks between $ 50,000 and $ 80,000, with an average salary of $ 57,600. A more accurate comparison of where US game development jobs begin is a Learn Direct's report of $ 37,000 annually.

Game ratings and government oversight

Before 1993, the United States did not have a single judging body, but with the increase in violence in games and more realistic graphics, parents, politicians, and other affected groups demanded government regulation of the game industry. The 1993 Congressional Hearing on Video Games brought the recently released Mortal Kombat and Night Trap into focus, highlighting the lack of a rating system in the industry. Until then, publishers like Sega or Nintendo had their own methods of rating games, these were not standardized and allowed for differences between different console systems, including the sale of games that glorified violence. The members of Congress threatened to pass regulations on video games if the industry does not find its own solution. The industry responded by forming and establishing a trading group in 1994 Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA), now known as the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), and creating a voluntary rating system called the Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) to address government concerns of the time corresponded. The ESRB mainly focused on console games when they were created. Computer video games were used by the Recreational Software Advisory Council (RSAC) until 1999, but then switched to the ESRB in 1999. While the RSAC was used more focused for evaluating online content then.

Since 1993, several incidents of gun violence in the United States, e. For example, the 1999 Columbine High School shooting shooting , increasingly blamed video games for incitement, even though there is no conclusive evidence that violent video games lead to acts of violence. Under pressure from parents and concerned citizens, the government and the individual states have passed laws for the ESRB system which penalize sales in retail outlets to minors if the games are not suitable for the age of the buyer. This was particularly the case with Brown vs. Entertainment Merchants Association at the United States Supreme Court , which concluded in 2010 that video games are a type of proprietary language whose sales can only be regulated if the games fail the Miller Test for Obscene Material.

The ESRB is thus still a voluntary system for the rating of video games in the United States. Almost all large retail companies do not sell games without rating and in some cases do so for the titles with "AO" (adults only ", German:" only for adults ") are marked. Retailers are voluntarily bound by these age ratings, even though the Federal Trade Commission found in 2013 that the ESRB system is one of the most compliant when compared to other American entertainment industries. In addition to age requirements, the ESRB assessment includes content descriptions (e.g., nudity, drug use, and “blood and gore”) to better describe the type of material being tested in the game. In addition to reviewing post-publisher submission material, the ESRB also reviews post-release games to ensure that additional content has not been added after review, and penalties publishers if this is the case. The ESRB was particularly involved in the Coffee-Mod, a user-mod in the game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas , which unlocked a sex scene that was on the sales CD but was not accessible without the mod. Currently, 85% of American parents are aware of the ESRB's rating system, and many of the parents find parental controls useful on game consoles.

In the digital retail space, including all-digital games and downloadable content for retail game titles, games do not require an ESRB rating. The developers and publishers are encouraged to use the evaluation criteria provided by the International Age Rating Coalition for self-control in order to be able to give their new games a rating based on the national and regional rating systems e.g. B. Pan European Game Information (PEGI) transmitted.

Arcade games in the US are rated separately under a separate Parental Advisory System from the American Amusement Machine Association, the Amusement & Music Operators Association, and the International Association for the Leisure and Entertainment Industry, along with guidelines for games that should be in arcades and other content guidelines for arcade operators.

See also

Individual evidence

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  2. ↑ Patrick Rishe: Trends in the Multi-Billion Dollar Video Game Industry: Q / A with Gaming Champ Fatal1ty . Forbes. April 18, 2012. Retrieved December 1, 2012.
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  12. ↑ Ievgen Leonov: Mobile and Social Gaming Industry: 2014 Highlights . Gamasutra . December 29, 2014. Retrieved October 5, 2015.
  13. ↑ a b Tim Crosby: How Becoming a Video Game Designer Works , HowStuffWorks , n. D. Retrieved November 5, 2013
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  15. ^ Software Developers: Job Outlook . US Bureau of Labor Statistics , July 18, 2012, Accessed November 3, 2013.
  16. ^ Rob Crossley: Mortal Kombat: Violent game that changed video games industry . In: BBC . June 2, 2014. Archived from the original on August 1, 2018. Retrieved October 30, 2018.
  17. ^ Sean Buckley: Then there were three: Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and the evolution of the Electronic Entertainment Expo . In: Engadget . June 6, 2013. Archived from the original on September 9, 2017. Retrieved on May 9, 2017.
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  22. ↑ FTC Undercover Shopper Survey on Entertainment Ratings Enforcement Finds Compliance Highest Among Video Game Sellers and Movie Theaters (Press release). Federal Trade Commission . March 25, 2013. Retrieved January 7, 2020.
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