Platformisation in game development

Abstract

This article examines how the process of platformisation is manifesting in videogame development. Rather than reinforcing a top-down perspective of platformisation centred on distribution platforms like app stores, we focus on often overlooked game-making tools and the independent, entrepreneurial, and fringe communities that govern and use them. We draw on case studies of Unity and Twine, two such tools that have transformed videogame creation and distribution. By considering how they complicate existing understandings and definitions of both 'platform' and 'platformisation' , we move beyond reductive narratives that frame platformisation as a fixed, hegemonic process. Instead, we reveal a much more ambiguous and complex relationship between game makers and the platforms they use. Issue 4This paper is part of Trust in the system, a special issue of Internet Policy Review guestedited by Péter Mezei and Andreea Verteş-Olteanu.

Segmentation of the Young Elderly Based on Technology Readiness

“…(Billhardt et al, 2020;Burkhardt, Frey, Hiller, Neff, & Lasi, 2019;Savković, Schweigkofler, Savković, Riedl, & Matt, 2020). Meta-platforms are centralized efforts to organize collective actions by enforcing common policies, standards, and infrastructures (Chia, Keogh, Leorke, & Nicoll, 2020;Floetgen et al, 2021). Meta-platforms functionalities include one-stop-shop via standardized portals, information dissemination & aggregation, and the establishment of shared services (Floetgen et al, 2021;Hoffmann, Rupp, & Sander, 2020).…”

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.…”

Workers’ visibility and union organizing in the UK videogames industry

“…Since the authors called for an "exodus" toward independent labor, the sector has seen stronger corporate consolidation through the platformization of production, consumption, and distribution (Nieborg, 2020;Tyni, 2020). The platformization of distribution and development has transformed the relation employer-employee in a deterritorialized network of mutual dependencies that requires workers to manage frequent changes in key aspects of production and commercialization (Chia et al, 2020;Foxman, 2019;Nieborg & Poell, 2018). The new dynamics tend to increase workers' responsibilities, reducing opportunities for creative expression and for racial and gendered inclusivity (Whitson, 2019).…”