The players
(Taken from The Media Student's Book, Fifth Edition by G. Branston & R. Stafford)
The majors include Sony, one of the studio conglomerates, via its Playstation, and Activision Blizzard (Skylanders / Guitar Hero / Call of Duty / Tony Hawk / Warcraft etc), the company formed from the game division of the French media conglomerate Vivendi and the software company Activision. Vivendi was briefly part of the studio major Vivendi-Universal.
Harmonix, creator of the Rock Band series is part of Viacom, so some games companies are linked to the media conglomerates.
Many independent games designers and publishers, many from the UK, have been gradually consolidated to produce major publishers like Square Enix (Japan), Ubisoft (France) and Electronic Arts and Take Two (USA).
To make a comparison in which the hardware factor is stripped out, most of these publishers have a turnover from games roughly equivalent to a major Hollywood studio take from cinema box office (ie. around $1.5 billion). According to Activision Blizzard, which has major strengths in online franchises, the combined European and North American market for gaming software in 2008 was $24 billion. There are undoubtededly parallels between films and games in terms of how the Japanese and American companies publish games that are then possibly distributed in certain territories by their rivals.
Definition
Conglomerates: Companies that are made up of separate divisions, each with distinct identities operating in different sectors of the market - and possibly different industries altogether. They are often formed through a process of 'mergers and acquisitions.' When this happens in a specific market or sector, it is termed consolidation.
Renowned industry analyst Nick Parker claims that the tipping point - the "'iTunes moment" - will occur in 2014 when the games industry might have some parity between digital distribution and retail.
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