Unity Production: Capturing the Everyday Game Maker Market

Abstract

The production of games using ‘free’ and accessible all-in-one game engines dominate the market for the development of game products and services. This shift has consequently ‘opened’ production to what I name everyday game makers, who share multiple professional and leisure-based game making identities, and ‘closed’ development behind platform governance policies, proprietary technical requirements, and multisided market strategies. I examine the local and global strategies of Unity Technologies and how game makers ‘make do’ with its production platform tools in developing digital games. I argue strategies of companies like Unity Technologies constantly transform and tailor its production platforms to the local norms and practices of everyday game makers through its desire to capture a larger market share of the global game industry’s creative production sector.

Gaming on the Go: Examining the Resurgence and Growth of the Mobile and VR Games Markets During the Pandemic

“…This corroborates the developed feature of mobile gaming that catered to the demand of the pandemic, and relegated the relevance and practicality of playing computer games [8]. However,it capitalized on the participatory features of PC and console technology developed as early as 2006 with Nintendo's Wii, and innovated on the stagnant features of extensive hardware and accessories that precluded the portability of video games [8]. Springing from this portable and compact feature that makes it accessible, the democratization of video games through mobile games followed [3] .…”

“…In 2020, mobile game players logged in a global average of around 234 minutes a day. This corroborates the developed feature of mobile gaming that catered to the demand of the pandemic, and relegated the relevance and practicality of playing computer games [8]. However,it capitalized on the participatory features of PC and console technology developed as early as 2006 with Nintendo's Wii, and innovated on the stagnant features of extensive hardware and accessories that precluded the portability of video games [8].…”

“…Thus, the mobile market is contributing to a "democratization" of the video gaming industry that frees it from the control of the console and PC markets. But first, one must understand how mobile gaming became one of the pillars of the modern video game industry in the first place, and perhaps its history will help better inform the market of its eventual destination [8].…”

“…This led to the rise in popularity of a variety of games, from the classic "Tetris" to modern titles such as "Innersloth's Among Us" and "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG)", which widened the market and audience of video games. ]Generally speaking, mobile games allowed for almost anyone with a phone to quickly pass their time playing games [4] [8]. It was clear that a significant portion of the video games market wanted mobile, portable, and compact game titles that featured easy-tounderstand control layouts and low-cost hardware.…”

“…As a " new old" development in the history of the industry, its introduction dates back as early as 1950s with the launch of Telesphere Mask by Morton Heilig. Herein the impact of mobile gaming and the pandemic once again becomes instrumental in reintroducing this innovative technology in visualization and graphic images, to a market more conducive and responsive to its development and rise [3].Through its integration with the aforementioned appealing features of mobile gaming, VR technology looks forward to steadily growing in the market, and keeping relevance in the video games space [8] .…”