Ravi Shankar Jayaman
Today we have so many video games releasing every week. Most of the video games today bring in as much revenue as a Hollywood movie (reference needed). What was once considered a niche industry, thanks to various technological advancements, is no longer a niche industry. We have video games releasing for different age groups. Like movies, we have different flavours of games. We have dance games, party games, racing games, shooting games etc. Today, there really is a video game for everyone
An introduction to video games
In 1958, William Higginbotham, a nuclear physicist, created what is now known as the very first video game – ‘Tennis for Two’ (reference). It was a two player tennis game played with two controllers. ‘Tennis for Two’ was meant for a small audience and was never seen as something people could make money from. This particular game was the inspiration to the first successful video game ever created ‘Pong’. ‘Pong’ was an arcade game that released in 1972. Pong’s success made people see gaming as a means of business and thus the gaming industry started. Today we have so many video games releasing every week. There are many different game consoles – ones that can be played at home and ones that are portable. We can also play video games on PC, tablets etcfor example (don’t use “etc” in a paper). Even the mobile phones we use every day can be used to play video games. All these factors have made the gaming industry a multibillion dollar industry. Today the gaming industry is worth more than the music industry and even Hollywood (reference). A new video game that is released today has a good chance to earn as much as a Hollywood movie would. In fact in more than a few cases a successful video game would make more money than most of the
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movies ever would. For example, the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops totaled in at $1 billion
References: David Hinkle. (2011, July 5). Report: Game Industry worth $74 billion in 2011. Retrieved from: http://www.joystiq.com/2011/07/05/report-game-industry-worth-74-billion-in-2011/ Don Reisinger. (2010, December 21). Call of Duty Black Ops hits $1 billion milestone. Retrieved from: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20026321-17.html CBC News. (2006, October 19). Video games can reshape education: U.S Scientists. Retrieved from: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2006/10/19/videogames-education.html Medical News. (2011, September 20). Gamers crack AIDS puzzle. Retrieved from: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/234664.php Ea_spouse. (2004, November 10). EA: The Human Story. Retrieved from:http://easpouse.livejournal.com/274.html Simon Carless. (2004, November 11). ‘EA Spouse’ weblog Raises Issues On Game Development Quality Of Life. Retrieved from: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=4543 Kristan Reed. (2004, February 20). Team Bondi – The First interview. Retrieved from: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/i_teambondi Brendan Sinclair. (2006, September 25). Rockstar gets L.A Noire. Retrieved from: http://uk.gamespot.com/ps3/adventure/l-a-noire/news/6158595/rockstar-gets-la-noire Nathan Brown. (2011, October 5). Team bondi to close. Retrieved from: Ravi Shankar Jayaraman 211586823 Page 11 Comment [JBC6]: All these references needed to be embedded in the paper. http://www.next-gen.biz/news/team-bondi-close Ben Maxwell. (2011, june 27). Former Team Bondi staff reveal troubled LA Noire development. Retrieved from: http://www.next-gen.biz/news/former-team-bondi-staff-reveal-troubled-la-noiredevelopment Nathan Brown. (2011, July 5). Report: Rockstar washes hands of Team Bondi. Retrieved from: http://www.next-gen.biz/news/report-rockstar-washes-hands-team-bondi Curt Feldman. (2004, November 11). Employees readying class-action lawsuit against EA. Retrieved from: http://www.gamespot.com/news/employees-readying-class-action-lawsuit-against-ea6112998 David Jenkins. (2006, April 26). Programmers win EA overtime settlement, EA_Spouse revealed. Retrieved from: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=9051 Michael McWhertor. (2008, April 7). EA employees Now Pleased As Punch To Be Working At EA. Retrieved from: http://kotaku.com/377116/ea-employees-now-pleased-as-punch-to-be-working-at-ea Jason Fell. (2011, October 18). Best small business to work for 2011. Retrieved from: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220512 Business wire. (2007, August 10). Irrational games 2K Boston and 2K Australia. Retrieved from: http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070810 005400&newsLang=en Ravi Shankar Jayaraman 211586823 Page 12 Ravi, very interesting topic. Good use of examples. As per my comments, be careful about sweeping statements and the proper structure and use of references. Overall, good job. Ravi Shankar Jayaraman 211586823 Page 13