Reimsbach-Kounatze, Christian; Wunsch-Vincent, Sacha --- "Online Games and Virtual Worlds: Business and Policy Developments" [2010] ELECD 136; in Graber, Beat Christoph; Burri-Nenova, Mira (eds), "Governance of Digital Game Environments and Cultural Diversity" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Governance of Digital Game Environments and Cultural Diversity

Editor(s): Graber, Beat Christoph; Burri-Nenova, Mira

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848446830

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: Online Games and Virtual Worlds: Business and Policy Developments

Author(s): Reimsbach-Kounatze, Christian; Wunsch-Vincent, Sacha

Number of pages: 44

Extract:

1. Online games and virtual worlds:
business and policy developments
Christian Reimsbach-Kounatze and
Sacha Wunsch-Vincent

INTRODUCTION
The computer and video game industry is a young industry reaching back only
40 years. The development of CD-ROMs and better graphics in the mid-1990s
drove rapid growth, now underpinned by the spread of ever-faster broadband
and the growth of online games.1 The global market for game software2 was
estimated to be worth more than USD 37 billion in 2007, growing at a rate of
19% and overtaking the market for recorded music (USD 30 billion) for the



1 This chapter is written in the personal capacity of the authors and the views
expressed here shall neither be attributed to the OECD nor to its member countries.
The authors thank Christoph Beat Graber, Mira Burri, Thomas Steiner and other
participants for helpful comments and interesting debates at the international work-
shop on `Governance of Online Worlds and Cultural Diversity', University of
Lucerne, Switzerland, 12 September 2008. This chapter draws on and updates the
OECD study on online computer and video games (OECD, Digital Broadband
Content: The Online Computer and Video Game Industry, DSTI/ICCP/
IE(2004)13/FINAL, 12 May 2005); the OECD study on the `participative web'
(OECD, Participative Web and User-Created Content: Web 2.0, Wikis and Social
Networking, Paris: OECD, 2007) and relevant work of the OECD Information
Technology Outlook 2008 (OECD, Information Technology Outlook 2008, Paris:
OECD, 2008, chapters 3 and 5). It ...