Video Game Consoles Research Articles

Virtual Reality Applications for Balance Rehabilitation and Efficacy in Addressing Other Symptoms in Multiple Sclerosis—A Review

(1) Background: Since multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurological pathology known for its disabling effects across many domains, the introduction of virtual reality (VR) usage has been attempted, as it represents a new method of approach to rehabilitation and treatment of chronic neurological pathologies. Encouraging research has explored the use of video game consoles and VR-assisted Robot-Assisted Gait Training (RAGT) to address balance disturbances in this population. (2) Methods: The search involved two databases, Web of Science and PubMed, utilizing a selection of terms including “Virtual reality”, “Multiple sclerosis”, “Balance”, and “Rehabilitation”. Two reviewers initiated and performed the search for articles, subsequently selecting and extracting data from the studies. The PEDro scale was the tool for evaluating the quality of the articles that we introduced in our research. (3) Results: After rigorous scanning, nine articles remained eligible for our study. VR interventions, particularly compared to standard balance training, consistently improved balance in multiple sclerosis. Robotic-assisted technology with 2D VR yielded superior results in balance rehabilitation. VR interventions had varied effects on walking speed. They have shown promise in decreasing the risk of falls and improving patients’ daily lives while reducing fatigue in multiple sclerosis. (4) Conclusions: VR offers comparable or superior benefits to classical exercise and no intervention for balance but does not significantly improve functional mobility. However, it shows the potential to improve quality of life and fatigue in MS patients. Investigation of VR alongside RAGT is important to be performed with larger sample sizes and comprehensive results are needed to fully understand its efficacy in MS rehabilitation.

Nintendo’s new normal?

Research methodology This case was written with publicly available information about Nintendo. Case overview/synopsis In the 1980s and 1990s, Nintendo dominated the video game industry with a market share of 90%. In 2020, Nintendo’s market share dropped to nearly 31%. This case examines a 40-year history of Nintendo, including its core strategy of video game and video game console development and its growth strategy using its intellectual property. Throughout its history, Nintendo has faced and continues to face stiff competition from Sony, Microsoft and new emerging technologies like virtual reality video games. Nintendo has the challenge of competing in a rapidly changing industry with changing customer preferences where it once had a dominant market share. Can Nintendo continue competing, relying on its core competency of developing new video games and consoles? Or moving forward, should it further define itself more broadly by continuing to leverage its intellectual property in the entertainment industry? Complexity academic level This case is suitable for undergraduate courses in marketing, marketing management and business strategy, or where an instructor focuses on strategic decision-making. This case will provide valuable in-class discussions on the importance of defining what a business should do and how it should grow. Additionally, this case will be useful for courses that include advanced discussions on tradeoffs between focusing on core competencies and growth by expanding into other opportunities that are not necessarily part of a business’s core strategy. A portion of this case was tested in an undergraduate marketing strategy and marketing principles course. The case created an excellent environment for critical thinking and analysis.

Economic Cost of Rehabilitation with Robotic and Virtual Reality Systems in People with Neurological Disorders: A Systematic Review.

Background: The prevalence of neurological disorders is increasing worldwide. In recent decades, the conventional rehabilitation for people with neurological disorders has been often reinforced with the use of technological devices (robots and virtual reality). The aim of this systematic review was to identify the evidence on the economic cost of rehabilitation with robotic and virtual reality devices for people with neurological disorders through a review of the scientific publications over the last 15 years. Methods: A systematic review was conducted on partial economic evaluations (cost description, cost analysis, description of costs and results) and complete (cost minimization, cost-effectiveness, cost utility and cost benefit) studies. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were followed. The main data sources used were PubMed, Scopus and Web of Science (WOS). Studies published in English over the last 15 years were considered for inclusion in this review, regardless of the type of neurological disorder. The critical appraisal instrument from the Joanna Briggs Institute for economic evaluation and the Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards (CHEERS) were used to analyse the methodological quality of all the included papers. Results: A total of 15 studies were included in this review. Ten papers were focused on robotics and five on virtual reality. Most of the studies were focused on people who experienced a stroke. The robotic device most frequently used in the papers included was InMotion® (Bionik Co., Watertown, MA, USA), and for those focused on virtual reality, all papers included used semi-immersive virtual reality systems, with commercial video game consoles (Nintendo Wii® (Nintendo Co., Ltd., Kyoto, Japan) and Kinect® (Microsoft Inc., Redmond, WA, USA)) being used the most. The included studies mainly presented cost minimization outcomes and a general description of costs per intervention, and there were disparities in terms of population, setting, device, protocol and the economic cost outcomes evaluated. Overall, the methodological quality of the included studies was of a moderate level. Conclusions: There is controversy about using robotics in people with neurological disorders in a rehabilitation context in terms of cost minimization, cost-effectiveness, cost utility and cost benefits. Semi-immersive virtual reality devices could involve savings (mainly derived from the low prices of the systems analysed and transportation services if they are applied through telerehabilitation programmes) compared to in-clinic interventions.

Video gaming industry in the US

Generations after generations, the entertainment industry evolved multiple folds, be it music, be it movies, be it sports, be it video games. Each industry doesn’t only set trends each decade but also changes peoples’ lifestyle. Video games are something which is involved almost in every person’s life. Some people play them when they’re young, some play in their teens, some play after they come home from office and some play after they retire. The video games were simply designed simulations that was started in 1950’s and 1960’s by computer scientists on the early computers. In 1952, British professor A.S. Douglas created OXO, also known as noughts and crosses or tic-tac-toe, as part of his doctoral dissertation at the University of Cambridge. In 1958, physicist William Higinbotham developed “Tennis for Two” on a large analog computer and connected oscilloscope screen. In 1962, Steve Russell at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) invented Spacewar! a computer-based space combat video game. It ran on the Programmed Data Processor-1 (PDP-1), a cutting-edge computer primarily found at universities. Spacewar! was the first video game that could be played on multiple computer installations. In 1967, Ralph Baer and his team at Sanders Associates, Inc., created a prototype multiplayer, multi-program video game system that could be played on a television. Known as “The Brown Box,” this invention led to the release of the Magnavox Odyssey in 1972, the first video game home console. In 1977, Atari launched the Atari 2600 (also known as the Video Computer System). This home console featured joysticks and interchangeable game cartridges, marking the beginning of the second generation of video game consoles. In 2023, the gaming industry reportedly earns more than film industry and music industry combined which is around $249.60 billion. According to a report by SuperData Research, the global gaming market was valued at $159.3 billion in 2020 and is estimated to reach $268.8 billion by 2025. This is already over three times the revenue of music industry and film industry combined. [2] The 2024 global video game market's projected value of $179.1 billion, with a healthy 6.4% CAGR, bodes well for the US industry. As a key player, the US drives this growth through successful titles like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto. A mobile gaming market experiencing significant growth and innovation, led by companies like Zynga, strengthens its longstanding dominance in the international arena. This success attracts international investment and talent, promoting innovation and pushing the industry forward.

Keeping Up With Atari: Neoliberal Expectations in Early Electronics Advertising

During the early 1980s, ad campaigns framed purchasing and using emerging consumer electronics as tools for accessing, what Lauren Berlant called, ‘the good life.’ Computers, video games, VCRs, and cassette players might help consumers cultivate a neoliberal, upwardly mobile, and implicitly white, lifestyle. This paper explores early personal computer and home console video game advertisements as a cultural discourse that framed emerging technology through normative gendered, raced, and classed everyday lifestyles in an American context. The central case study is the early 1980s televisual ad campaign for the Atari 2600 system, featuring the “Have You Played Atari Today?” jingle. The campaign was widely viewed and is representative of contemporaneous marketing approaches. The ad’s allusion to time management both reinforced broader neoliberal paradigms and enacted a gendered slippage between labour and leisure. This paper draws from feminist critical theory approaches and uses textual analysis to understand the ways that electronic advertisements appealed to late capitalist social attitudes.

Mapping Our Digital Menagerie: A Monster Manual for the Megadungeon

Relying on a comparison between the complex spatial organization of our current digital ecosystem and the ones from dungeons in role-playing games, this article analyzes the multiple entities that populate our computers, smartphones and video game consoles. Trolls, bugs, worms, conversational AI agents, NPCs, daemons, ghosts, Trojan horses and others are presented and discussed with a focus on their different degree of agency, ranging from human-controlled to having a certain degree of autonomy. By addressing how we coexist with such beings, this paper contributes to the nascent field of digital folklore.

Screen use and sleep duration and quality at 15 years old: Cohort study

Objective/backgroundThe evidence on the association between screen use and sleep of adolescents is mainly based on studies about time watching television, with a few examining time using computers, videogames, and mobile devices. Our aim was to investigate the association between screen time for entertainment (watching TV, using computer, or playing games on tablets, smartphones, or videogame consoles) and sleep duration and self-reported sleep quality, among adolescents aged 15 years. MethodsWith data from the 2004 Pelotas Birth Cohort, sleep duration was assessed with questions extracted from the Munich Chronotype Questionnaire and quality was self-reported. Adjusted β coefficients and prevalence ratios (PR) with (95% confidence intervals) were obtained, respectively, by linear and Poisson regressions. Results1,949 adolescents had information about screen time and sleep quality, and 1,851 about screen time and sleep duration. The median screen time was 4.5hs/24hs. The mean sleep duration was 7.6hs/24hs and the prevalence of bad sleep was 17.3% (15.7–19.0%). There was an inverse relationship between screen time and sleep duration. When compared with those with less than 2hs/24hs of screen time, adolescents with 6–8.8hs/24hs and ≥9hs experienced, respectively, 23.4 and 32.4 min reduction in sleep duration (β = -0.39; −0.62;-0.16 and β = -0.54; −0.77;-0.30). Adolescents with ≥9hs of screen time were 60% more likely to report bad sleep than those with less than 2hs/24hs (PR: 1.60; 1.10–2.32). ConclusionsThe median time spent using screens was longer than recommended. Screen use for ≥6hs/24hs was associated with a shorter sleep duration, and ≥9hs/24hs with poor sleep quality.

‘NowyouareRobin Hood: Prince of Thieves™’: Intermedial Medievalism

AbstractThe 1991 Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves console video game constitutes a significantly different vision of the Middle Ages than the blockbuster film upon which it was based. Prince of Thieves is one among a prolific tradition of Robin Hood-themed digital games, which produce anew a legend that has thrived across intermedial networks of representation since the Middle Ages. The game represents a desire to transform popular medievalist narratives into play formats, but also the entwined and invested relationship between Hollywood and the game industry over the last half-century. This article will analyse how three core thematic elements of the game are inherently shifted in the adaptation process: the range of perspectives reduced by a first-person game, the modes of violence, and the role of familial relationships. The game is more than just a remediated version of the same story, as its adaptation process is a result of not only the medievalist tradition of Robin Hood and a connection to this film but also of the history of the action-adventure game genre and movie-adaptation games. This article will argue that the context of video game adaptation and genre conventions shape the way this text operates as a piece of franchise media, and that these constraints or choices in the game’s design in turn shape the production of vastly different historical meanings.

Down to the Wire

“Junior, eat your obsolete computer! Don’t you know that an AppleTM a day keeps the doctor away?” Late last year, I stumbled across a paper by Zhu et al. (2022) and was immediately intrigued by the title—“Feeding Preference of Insect Larvae to Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Plastics.” I suppose that, knowing the astonishing ability of insects in general to chew their way through just about anything, I shouldn’t have been surprised that electrical and electronic devices aren’t exempt. Their ability to chew their way out of plastic containers, for example, has been known for about seven decades [and experienced first-hand about a decade ago, when we initially tried to set up a colony of navel orangeworms, Amyelois transitella (Walker), in plastic buckets]. Their ability to digest and thrive on plastic as food, though, is a relatively recent finding, reported initially in Chinese (Miao and Zhang 2010) and four years later in English (Yang et al. 2014). Today, more than a dozen species are known to survive on a diet of plastic (Pivato et al. 2022), the vast majority of which are stored product pests (a pattern consistent with the fact that they are among the insects most likely to encounter plastic, given that the stored products they consume are often stored in plastic containers). But the concept that there are insects that can ingest waste electrical and electronic equipment (yes, there’s an acronym: WEEE), or e-waste, was new to me. It was a challenge to imagine what, over the vast span of insect evolution, might have preadapted insects to consume any of the parts of discarded microwave ovens, cell phones, tablets, computers, keyboards, printers, small servers, fax machines, scanners, televisions, cable boxes, video game consoles, and other once-useful tools fallen victim to hardware upgrades.

Screen exposure time of children under 6 years old: a French cross-sectional survey in general practices in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region

BackgroundThe advent of miniature, easy-to-use and accessible multimedia products is leading to screen exposure that begins in early childhood. Overexposure in preschool may lead to adverse effects. The main objective of this study was to determine the average daily time (ADT) spent by children under 6 years of age, followed in general practice, in front of television or interactive screens.MethodsA cross-sectional survey was conducted in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region among randomly selected General Practitioners (GPs). The average daily screen time (ADST), regardless of the type of device (TVs, computers, tablets, smartphones, video game consoles), of the included children aged 0 to 2 years and 2 to 5 years was calculated from a self-questionnaire completed by the parents. A multivariate Poisson regression model was performed to analyse daily screen time, adjusted by factors selected on their clinical relevance and statistical significance.ResultsThe 26 participating GPs included 486 parents. They reported an ADST of 26 (± 44) minutes on weekdays and 30 (± 46) minutes on weekends for children under 2 years of age. For children over 2 years of age, the ADST was 66 (± 82) minutes on weekdays and 103 (±91) minutes on weekends. There was an association between the children’s average screen time and certain sociodemographic and environmental factors. Children whose parents had higher levels of education, those living in a family without TV screens or those who were well informed about the possible adverse health consequences of overuse of screens had lower average screen time. On the other hand, children of parents who spent more than 2 hours a day in front of screens, were more exposed.ConclusionsIn our survey, the ADST of children under 6 years of age followed in general practice was higher than the current recommendations. GPs can warn parents of preschool children of the effects of overexposure to screens, particularly parents of at-risk children.

Antecedents of brand love leading to purchase intention towards refurbished video game consoles

Antecedents of brand love leading to purchase intention towards refurbished video game consoles

Analysis for the Development of Nintendo Based on SWOT Model

Nintendo Company Limited is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. Over the years, the company has evolved into an influential video game console and software development company, producing and selling hardware and software for its video game systems. The video game industry is dominated by Microsoft, SONY, and Nintendo. Companies have promoted the rapid development of the game market through cost control, technological innovation, and other methods, under the guidance of their own competitive strategies, and through fierce competition. The three companies have been battling for market supremacy for many years. This paper will analyze the strategy adopted by Nintendo, which is one of the leading brands in the consumer electronics sector, through SWOT analysis, and analyze the advantages, disadvantages, opportunities, and threats of Nintendo's strategy. In order to find out the shortcomings of the strategy adopted by Nintendo, and give the recommendation to assure success. Nintendo’s strength not only owns the most popular intellectual property of characters like Mario but is also extremely popular in the world. In terms of weakness, the company’s replenishment is not active and has many fake goods. What’s more, the Switch and other products also have some problems. For its opportunity, Nintendo has an economic, policy, and technological prospects. At the same time, there are some adverse factors in the external environment. However, in terms of threat, Nintendo now has a lot of competition in the market. Changing player preferences and demographic shifts also threaten its growth.

Key Success Factors Study of Nintendo Switch in Gaming Console Market

Nintendo Switch, also known as “NS”, is a video game console released by Nintendo in 2017. This product received worldwide accreditation with its multi-functionals as both home console and handheld device. NS is marked as the fifth best-selling consoles of all time. This study analyses the key success factors of NS, by collecting the factors of upturns and downturns of each significant product release in Nintendo history, and comparing horizontally to same generation of products owned by industry rivals. Aside from competitive advantages analysis from products perspective, the management strategy of Nintendo in 21st century – including innovative culture management and Blue Ocean market strategy – is also evaluated as another important factor for NS success. In the end of the study, several proposals are raised for possible business transformation for Nintendo.

Joyce Weisbecker: The first indie game developer

Joyce Weisbecker was always interested in her father Joseph’s work. What child wouldn’t be? Joseph was the inventor of the Think-a-Dot and other games, a writer, and a magician who loved learning and teaching. But that’s not all. Joseph was also the engineer who led RCA into a new technological era with his 8-bit microprocessor architecture. Throughout the 1970s, he prototyped and developed a number of programmable video games, educational systems, and game consoles, all showcasing what a game changer the microprocessor was going to be to a nascent consumer electronics industry. These included the hobbyist’s build-it-yourself COSMAC Elf articles and the Studio II programmable video game console. Weisbecker followed along with her father’s inventions, spending time with him in his at-home workshop, and in the summer of 1976, before her freshman year in college, she sold her car race game <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Speedway</i> to RCA for its Studio II, making her the first indie game developer.

The association between owning a videogame console and the gender gap in STEM: an instrumental variable approach

The association between owning a videogame console and the gender gap in STEM: an instrumental variable approach

Effectiveness of feedback-based technology on physical and cognitive abilities in the elderly.

Aging raises a social and health challenge because the passing of time causes changes in cognitive and physical functions that impair functionality and quality of life. In addition, advancements in technology and information technology have led to the development of new techniques for retraining based on the feedback technology provides. To solve the negative consequences of aging, a randomized clinical trial was carried out to assess the effectiveness of a protocol using feedback-based technology to improve physical and cognitive functions in older adults. For the purpose of this study, 200 patients were selected from a Social and Community Services Center in the province of Seville and only 46 of them became participants of the study (after applying the inclusion criteria). These patients were divided into two groups: control and experimental. Physical and cognitive abilities were assessed using the Miniexamen cognoscitivo Test (an adaptation of the MiniMental examination test), Yesevage's Depression Scale, Oddball Test, Attention Network Test, Berg Scale, Tinetti Scale, and Timed Up and Go Test. The intervention applied to the experimental group consisted of a supervised protocol using the Nintendo® Wii video game console and the Wii-Fit© video game during 16 sessions, 2 times a week with a duration of 30 min per session. The control group did not receive any treatment. The experimental group showed statistically significant improvements in all the physical variables (balance, gait, autonomy, and fall risk), as other authors had proven, and in memory and reaction times; there were no improvements in attention networks. The control group (placebo) even showed a decrease in their functions, with worse results on the Timed up and Go test Scale. The intervention using feedback-based technology has been proven effective in improving physical and cognitive abilities and in preventing and promoting healthy aging.

Trade‐offs to using standardized tools: Innovation enablers or creativity constraints?

AbstractResearch SummaryIn platform ecosystems, the creation of new products is often based on standardized development tools. Complementors often have a choice between either using these tools or creating the functionality themselves. In this paper, we study how the use of standardized development tools is related to the type of products created. By using data on the use of middleware (e.g., game engines) in the console video game market, we show that the use of development tools is associated with products that are less novel but with higher sales on average. We exploit a policy change that affected the ability of U.S.‐based developers to hire foreign workers as an instrument for the use of development tools and find further support for these patterns.Managerial AbstractWhen developing new products, firms often have to decide whether they base their technology on preexisting components and standardized tools or develop that technology themselves. In general, it has not been clear how using standardized third‐party tools that may be available to all firms in an industry affects the nature of the products that are created. Using data on middleware components, such as game engines, in the console video game industry, this paper shows the use of such standardized tools is associated with the creation of products that are less novel but generate higher sales on average. This is an important strategic consideration for firms, but also for platforms that make decisions regarding whether such tools should be allowed on their platform.

Software multihoming to distal markets: Evidence of cannibalization and complementarity in the video game console industry

Steady software supply is a crucial driver of platform sales. While publishers benefit from releasing software across multiple platforms to tap a greater market, platform manufacturers often seek exclusive release to differentiate from competitors. Research has examined such software multihoming across competing platforms of the same technology generation (i.e., the proximal market); however, publishers increasingly multihome software to platforms in distal markets. In the video game console industry, these include previous-generation consoles, handhelds, or mobile devices. This study investigates multihoming to distal markets in the seventh and eighth game console generations. Whereas multihoming to previous-generation consoles cannibalizes focal console sales, multihoming to mobile devices exerts complementary effects. Software quality and console age moderate these relationships, with negative spillovers from multihoming to previous-generation consoles being rooted in lower-quality games and games released later in the console’s lifecycle. By contrast, multihoming to mobile devices is most beneficial early on.

Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons' Infrared Motion Camera Sensor for Training Manual Dexterity in People with Multiple Sclerosis: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: The Nintendo Switch® (NS) is the ninth video game console developed by Nintendo®. Joy-Cons® are the primary game controllers for the NS® video game console, and they have an infrared motion camera sensor that allows capturing the patient’s hands without the need to place sensors or devices on the body. The primary aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of the NS®, combined with a conventional intervention, for improving upper limb (UL) grip muscle strength, coordination, speed of movements, fine and gross dexterity, functionality, quality of life, and executive function in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. Furthermore, we sought to assess satisfaction and compliance levels. Methods: A single-blinded, randomized clinical trial was conducted. The sample was randomized into two groups: an experimental group who received treatment based on Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training® for the NS® (20 min) plus conventional rehabilitation (40 min), and a control group who received the same conventional rehabilitation (60 min) for the ULs. Both groups received two 60 min sessions per week over an eight-week period. Grip strength, the Box and Blocks Test (BBT), the Nine Hole Peg Test (NHPT), the QuickDASH, the Multiple Sclerosis Impact Scale (MSIS-29), the Trail Making Test (TMT), and the Stroop Color and Word Test (SCWT) were used pre- and post-treatment. Side effects and attendance rates were also recorded. Results: Intragroup analysis showed significant improvements for the experimental group in the post-treatment assessments for grip strength in the more affected side (p = 0.033), the BBT for the more (p = 0.030) and the less affected side (p = 0.022), the TMT (A section) (p = 0.012), and the QuickDASH (p = 0.017). No differences were observed for the control group in intragroup analysis, but they were observed in the NHPT for the more affected side (p = 0.012). The intergroup analysis did not show differences between both groups. Conclusions: Our results show that an eight-week experimental protocol, after using Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training® and the right-side Joy-Con controller for the NS®, combined with a conventional intervention, showed improvements in grip strength, coordination, fine and gross motor function, executive functions, and upper limb functionality in the experimental group. However, no differences were observed when both groups were compared in the intergroup analysis. The addition of Brain Training® for the NS® for the upper limb rehabilitation did not show side effects and was rated with a high satisfaction and excellent compliance in people with MS. Trial registration: This randomized controlled trial has been registered at ClinicalTrials Identifier: NCT04171908, November 2019.

Online Learning and Optimization for Revenue Management Problems with Add-on Discounts

We study in this paper a revenue-management problem with add-on discounts. The problem is motivated by the practice in the video game industry by which a retailer offers discounts on selected supportive products (e.g., video games) to customers who have also purchased the core products (e.g., video game consoles). We formulate this problem as an optimization problem to determine the prices of different products and the selection of products for add-on discounts. In the base model, we focus on an independent demand structure. To overcome the computational challenge of this optimization problem, we propose an efficient fully polynomial-time approximation scheme (FPTAS) algorithm that solves the problem approximately to any desired accuracy. Moreover, we consider the problem in the setting in which the retailer has no prior knowledge of the demand functions of different products. To solve this joint learning and optimization problem, we propose an upper confidence bound–based learning algorithm that uses the FPTAS optimization algorithm as a subroutine. We show that our learning algorithm can converge to the optimal algorithm that has access to the true demand functions, and the convergence rate is tight up to a certain logarithmic term. We further show that these results for the independent demand model can be extended to multinomial logit choice models. In addition, we conduct numerical experiments with the real-world transaction data we collect from a popular video gaming brand’s online store on Tmall.com. The experiment results illustrate our learning algorithm’s robust performance and fast convergence in various scenarios. We also compare our algorithm with the optimal policy that does not use any add-on discount. The comparison results show the advantages of using the add-on discount strategy in practice. This paper was accepted by J. George Shanthikumar, big data analytics.