On the business of Gaming Moving from the Macro to the Micro Project 4 Proposal By: Matt Granger

Format 5-7 Page Traditional Essay 3-5 Minute Video to be used in conjunction with the essay Essay and video will reference one another Video will also be used as a reference tool to demonstrate various examples

Platform The two main software programs that I will be using to create my project will be Microsoft Word and Adobe Premiere Pro Adobe Captivate 2017 might be used to capture screen videos if necessary Gameplay might also be exported from my PlayStation 4 I will also use Adobe Audition to record voice-over audio for the video that will be used as commentary over screenshots and recorded gameplay

Questions What was the business model for video game sales around their inception? How has this business model changed over time and why? What is the most prevalent model for selling games today? How can we expect micro-transactions to continue to change the way we play games? Can we ever expect to see free-to-play as the primary model for video game marketing? How has the indie free-to-play market influenced triple-A developers such as EA? Where does community input and feedback fall into this spectrum and how have players been able to influence the way we access and experience games?

Keywords Downloadable Content Micro-transaction Free-to-play Pay-to-win Season Pass

Outline Start by talking about the early pay-once model that early video games adopted Move towards the modern and touch on DLC and micro-transactions and when the two were first introduced in games Also talk about how these phenomenon have evolved and grow over time Move towards the business side of things and how these have proved to be successful business models for large corporations Introduce the concept of indie and free-to-play games and how they have tended to deviate from such business models How has free-to-play existed in different genres of games Where does DLC and micro-transaction fit into the free-to-play model? Transition to video and show some examples of these different types of games and what types of games they tend to be Speak towards the social implications of these changes Use EA as an example of when the two models overlap perhaps too much Predictions as to where I think video games are headed towards in the future and which model will dominate he next genereation

References and Citation Style Henry Jenkins, “Games, The New Lively Art,” Handbook of Computer Game Studies (MIT Press, 2005) Jodi Byrd, “‘Do they not have rational souls?’: Consolidation and Sovereignty in Digital New Worlds” Settler Colonial Studies (2016) https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinanderton/2017/04/29/the-business-of-video-games- a-multi-billion-dollar-industry-infographic/ http://www.rollingstone.com/glixel/features/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-good-loot-box-or- microtransaction-w508742 All citations will be in the MLA style of citation in a bibliography at the end of the paper