Joe’sTake

Many in the video game industry have important roles to play. The marketer. The online store manager. The members of the greenlight committee. The investor. The publishing executive. The business agent.

But none of these supporting roles would have purpose without the project they orbit – the game itself. This can be easy to forget in the struggle for funding, for fair contracts, for market share, for platform deals, for influencer attention, and for player engagement.

Does this mean that every development studio is going to hit upon fun that is also commercially successful, making smart decisions each step of the way? No. This is not an infallible mantle. This is simply the truth, and it is so often glossed over in articles about layoffs, record corporate earnings, the power of generative AI, death threats from trolls, EULAs requiring customer data to play, and successful games that ‘came out of nowhere’.

Creation is not a factory process, it is messy and unpredictable, it requires risk, often involves false starts, and yet is vital. Without new experiences to entertain, to delight, to distract, to create kinship, to engender emotion, those who came to games in the first place will find other things to do.

Games are not 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘰𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴. Games are not 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵 to fill a business purpose for the next platform, or device, or financial model or tool. 𝘎𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘶𝘳𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘦. Developers create our universe, one where the supporting roles have meaning. When developers thrive, our whole industry flourishes.