This is Not a Software Industry - The Video Game Industry: Formation, Present State, and Future - page 2

1 This is Not a Software Industry

Casey O'Donnell

This chapter examines why understanding the video game industry and
video game production simply as “software,” from an industry, production
or cultural perspective, neglects numerous important aspects of each. The
chapter draws on signifi cant and sustained ethnographic research amongst
game developers. The chapter interrogates the historical foundations that
likely led to such a classifi cation and how those perspectives have changed
as the game industry has matured. The work, industry and play of video
games all point to the unique aspects of the video game industry and the
importance of understanding the phenomenon on its own terms.

INTRODUCTION

Video games, or electronic games, are often referred to as software. Even
the trade organization that represents the video game industry, the Elec-
tronic Software Association (ESA) named itself “entertainment software.”
In part, this is a remnant of history. Indeed, most early games were written
entirely by a single software engineer or as side projects of students of com-
puter science (Kent 2001, 185-195). Early games were often programmed
like any other software package and did not require signifi cant collabora-
tion between individuals to produce a game.
Modern game development, although still a practice rooted in software
development practices and indeed “code,” cannot be understood simply as
“software.” By simply visiting a video game development studio one can
begin to understand that there are numerous dif erences between software
and video games. This chapter examines the foundations of the assumption
that video games are software and posits that continued understanding of
video games as “just” software misrepresents both games and the process
of game development.
The argument is made that game development is not “just” software
development, video games are not just games and the video game industry
is not the software industry. Attempting to collapse one into the other
neglects a broader social, cultural, technological and political-economic