Game Engine Culture

The Extended Reach of Game Engine Companies: How Companies Like Epic Games and Unity Technologies Provide Platforms for Extended Reality Applications and the Metaverse

“…Meanwhile, these companies have become powerful actors by providing opportunities for third parties to offer services and software specific to their engine and explicitly and implicitly shaping the options of those working with and relying on said engine. In other words, they provide platforms (Chia et al, 2020; Foxman, 2019; Freedman, 2020; Whitson, 2018).…”

“…The platform perspective, in turn, has been very productively employed in the role of game engines for game development and the mutual shaping of option spaces and interactions between game developers and game engine providers (Chia et al, 2020; Foxman, 2019; Freedman, 2020; Nicoll & Keogh, 2019; Whitson, 2018). However, the growing uses of game engines far beyond game development make an extension of this discussion necessary, for example, by adding their role in the popularization of extended reality, such as virtual and augmented reality applications, and video game forms as organizational schemes and business models.…”

“…Our goal is, first, to identify the continuities between strategic market positioning, software design, and public rhetoric of game engine companies within the field of platform studies beyond gaming. Integrating these sensibilities allows us to attend to disparate analytical objects (market survey, symbolic structures, and public rhetoric), as we respond to calls to consider the social implications of software and computation in context (Freedman, 2020, p. 6). Second, our interdisciplinary approach enables us to simultaneously attend to three discrete, yet mutually implicated, tracks (functional, rhetorical, and legal) along which game engine companies move into the platform market space.…”

“…For long, the study of platform infrastructures and their features have played an important role in game studies (Chia et al, 2020; Montfort & Bogost, 2009; Nieborg & Poell, 2018). This includes the study of hardware as platform infrastructure (Custodio, 2020; Jones & Thiruvathukal, 2012; Maher, 2012; Montfort & Bogost, 2009), software for the development of games (Chia et al, 2020; Foxman, 2019; Freedman, 2020; O’Donnell, 2013; Perks, 2021; Whitson, 2018; Young, 2021), and monetization tactics within and across games (Joseph, 2021; Nieborg et al, 2020; Perks, 2021). These studies show a wide variety in the constellation of platform infrastructures (Chia et al, 2020) but clearly document the power that platform providers have in shaping the option space and incentives for developers and gamers (Foxman, 2019; Freedman, 2020; Nieborg & Poell, 2018; Whitson, 2018).…”

“…This includes the study of hardware as platform infrastructure (Custodio, 2020; Jones & Thiruvathukal, 2012; Maher, 2012; Montfort & Bogost, 2009), software for the development of games (Chia et al, 2020; Foxman, 2019; Freedman, 2020; O’Donnell, 2013; Perks, 2021; Whitson, 2018; Young, 2021), and monetization tactics within and across games (Joseph, 2021; Nieborg et al, 2020; Perks, 2021). These studies show a wide variety in the constellation of platform infrastructures (Chia et al, 2020) but clearly document the power that platform providers have in shaping the option space and incentives for developers and gamers (Foxman, 2019; Freedman, 2020; Nieborg & Poell, 2018; Whitson, 2018). The role of game engines as platforms has featured strongly in this discussion (Chia et al, 2020; Foxman, 2019; Freedman, 2020; Nicoll & Keogh, 2019; Whitson, 2018); at the same time, game engine companies have always shaped their suite of services according to feedback from a heterogeneous group of makers, including big-budget publishers and everyday game makers (Young, 2021, pp.…”