The Business of Gaming: Perspectives in Strategy, Technology and Marketing

Catalog description

Technologies and platforms developed for gaming are even forming the foundations of emerging development of the metaverse and virtual reality. Even Microsoft, the company built on OS and Office, owns Xbox and Minecraft and just made the almost $70 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard. This crash course in video games will examine the gaming's beginnings in coin operated arcades, through the console wars, to today's mobile and cloud platforms, and the business drivers behind the modern industry. We'll examine the media impact and revenue models, and explore marketing and promotion opportunities to reach the huge base of consumers who play games. The class will review the social media tools and ecosystems surrounding the gaming universe, such as Twitch, Discord, and how they work for building and maintaining and connection to the communities in the gaming world. We'll finish by looking forward to virtual worlds, e-sports, and emergent metaverse platforms, as well as NFT based gaming.