Abstract
For the central entertainment industry of the 21 st century-online gaming, children are undoubtedly the key consumer group. Although research on the impact of the gaming industry on children mainly deals with adverse effects such as addiction, violent content, inappropriate conduct and monetisation of personal data, there are also many positive effects-family fun, virtual socialising, improving cognitive skills and using games as a teaching tool. Therefore, all participants' task in the gaming industry value chain is to maximise the positive and minimise the negative impacts on children. A survey conducted among 893 young gamers in Serbia exposed their habits in consuming online games and indicated whether their rights are protected during the gameplay. The conclusion provides recommendations for key stakeholders in the gaming industry's ecosystem on making the digital playground inclusive, safe, and responsible for respecting children's rights.
Highlights
The available data show that in 2019 games earned $120 billion globally – i.e., $64.4 billion on mobile devices, $29.6 billion on desktop computers (PC) and $15.4 billion on consoles (Superdata, 2020), making the gaming industry exceed other entertainment sectors by far, generating three times box office revenues ($43 billion) and twice music industry revenues ($57 billion) (Hall, 2020)
Despite the global trends of accelerated gaming during the lockdown, the survey results revealed that COVID-19 has not significantly changed Serbian youth's playing habits, as less than half of the respondents confirmed that they play online games the same amount of time as before (42%)
The gaming industry is one of the fastest-growing industries globally, as it is based on the synergy of an exponential development of digital technology, online connectivity and entertainment
Summary
The available data show that in 2019 games earned $120 billion globally – i.e., $64.4 billion on mobile devices, $29.6 billion on desktop computers (PC) and $15.4 billion on consoles (Superdata, 2020), making the gaming industry exceed other entertainment sectors by far, generating three times box office revenues ($43 billion) and twice music industry revenues ($57 billion) (Hall, 2020). The perfection of gaming hardware and broad accessibility of bandwidth and mobile internet accelerated a shift towards the delivery of online games via mobile and cloud-based platforms (ibid). The proliferation of platforms and borderless access to various online games have changed the way how gamers, or “individuals who play video games regularly” Consumers today buy fewer games than before but spend more time in gaming (Hall, 2020), which is why “finding a balance between providing engaging experiences and generating revenue is key for online gaming companies” The industry has become entirely focused on increasing user engagement and monetising the game and the gaming experience through expansions, new features and tools (Pappas, Mikalef, Giannakos, and Kourouthanassis, 2019)
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