The Market for Video and Computer Games

Since the 70’s, video and computer games as entertainment have established themselves firmly in some social groups. The turnover earned with computer and video games around the world since the year 2000 has exceeded what the film branch managed from cinemas. The growing spread of the technical infrastructure as a requirement for playing them – whether owning a games console or a PC – and the connecting of this hardware to the Internet is changing the traditional structures of this area. In addition, there is the constantly growing significance of mobile games platforms –from the traditional GameBoy to the multimedia mobile.

The development of this comparatively young branch, with its beginnings in the 1950’s and 1960’s, is observed and analysed against the background of its significance for the entire system of the media and using the aspects of competition and complementarity from the perspective of business, communications research and the law. The lecture series, „Games – Future Perspectives for interactive Offerings in the Media”, was held in the Summer semester of 2007 in cooperation with the Ministry for Economic and Labour Affairs, the Working Party on Games and the University of Hamburg and offered an overview of the various areas of this dynamic branch.