The video game industry is huge. Last year alone it generated an estimated $187 billion dollars in revenue. But it's also facing a host of serious issues: massive layoffs, the advent of A.I., games that take years to be released, and a schism between big and small developers.This week's Reporter's Notebook takes us inside this evolving industry with NPR's Vincent Acovino, who recently covered the annual Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco.For sponsor-free episodes of Consider This, sign up for Consider This+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.Email us at [email protected] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
What are the current trends in video game design?
You're walking down a city street. You turn a corner and you're swarmed by zombies. You fight them off with a folding chair. Explosions rattle the street around you.
You're basically beating up enemies in a dystopian version of New York City. And there's all this kind of like ooze spilling out onto the street.
That's Vincent Accovino, All Things Considered producer who covers video games for the show. This game is called Beatdown City Survivors and it'll be released later this year.
So it's like a really old school looking game. It's all like pixel art that's reminiscent of retro kind of video games and arcade games.
The game might look retro, but it says a lot about this current moment in video game development. The video game industry is massive, probably way bigger than most people think. It brought in around $187 billion in revenue last year, which is more than the film and music industries combined. Much of that money was made by big developers creating big games.
But more and more small independent studios are disrupting the space. Studios like New Challenger, which is making Beatdown City Survivors.
Some of the biggest hits in the industry are coming from developers that are, you know, a team of one person. It kind of goes to show the power dynamics right now in the industry where small independent developers do have the power and potential to make big video games without the risk that comes with making a giant multi-million dollar project as a big studio.
Consider this. The video game industry is facing a host of issues. Massive layoffs, the advent of AI, games that take years to be released, and that schism between big and small developers. Today, for our Weekly Reporter's Notebook series, Vincent Accovino takes us inside this evolving world. From NPR, I'm Asma Khalid.
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