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Publication type:	Conference paper
Type of review:	Not specified
Title:	Sustaining the future of the games industry : a call to action
Authors:	Busch, Thorsten Chee, Florence Sihvonen, Tanja
et. al:	No
Conference details:	Canadian Communication Association (CCA) Conference, Montréal, Canada, 17-21 June 2024
Issue Date:	17-Jun-2024
Language:	English
Subject (DDC):	658.408: Security management, environmental management 700: The arts and entertainment
Abstract:	Sustainability has gone mainstream in many industries, as global initiatives such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the UN Global Compact have gained traction. At the same time, the EU has been making formerly voluntary sustainability practices mandatory for business. As a result, sustainability standards are now common even in fairly conservative industries, such as insurance and finance, where environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria are routinely being used to screen investments (Clarkin, Sawyer & Levin, 2020). By contrast, the games industry has made comparatively little systematic effort addressing its sustainability issues (Jones, Comfort & Hillier, 2013; Busch, 2015). In our paper, we will (a) demonstrate why that is, and (b) identify potential solutions to this situation. In terms of economic sustainability, market disruptions indicate that the industry’s traditional business models are unsustainable (Dyer-Witheford & de Peuter, 2009; Zackariasson & Wilson, 2012; Sotamaa & Švelch, 2021; Lehtonen, Gustafsson & Hassan, 2023). For instance, shareholder-driven triple-A publishers such Activision, EA, and Ubisoft have gone through major crises, many mid-sized developers have been acquired or shut down, and indie developers suffer from being invisible due to the flood of new releases on Steam and XBox Game Pass. On mobile, growth-driven strategies focus on user data extraction and exploiting “whales,” while many console and PC game publishers have only been able to grow unsustainably (state subsidies, tax breaks, and short-term gains in market share by way of mergers and acquisitions). When it comes to social sustainability, the games industry has been struggling with issues such as crunch in game production and e-sports, unionization conflicts, and the self-exploitation of indie developers (Cote & Harris, 2021, 2023). In the mobile market, free-to-play business models have triggered ethical debates and regulatory attention because loot boxes and gacha mechanics straddle the line towards gambling (Drummond et al., 2020; Paul, 2020; Xiao et al. 2022). Moreover, the industry has been reluctant to address its obligations regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion (Consalvo, 2012; Busch, Chee & Harvey, 2016; Gray & Leonard, 2018; Humphreys, 2019; Gray, 2020; Mortensen & Sihvonen, 2020). Lastly, regarding environmental sustainability, the industry’s entire value chain is inextricably linked to material resources, including studios’ development kits and workstations, distribution networks like Steam and their data centers, and consumer hardware (Busch, 2015; Abraham, 2022; Asher, 2022). The “myth of clean tech” (Crawford, 2021: 41-46) promises efficiency gains, but those are negated by rebound effects, and e-waste continues to be an unsolved problem, especially in the global south (Dyer-Witheford & de Peuter, 2009). As large publishers have recently been promoting NFTs, the overall carbon impact of the games industry will likely increase even further in the future (Barber, 2021; Tabuchi, 2021). Against this background, we argue that the games industry should consider redesigning its business models and gear them towards sustainability for all its stakeholders from the ground up (Dyllick & Muff, 2015; Valente, 2015; Hope 2018; Lüdeke-Freund, Breuer & Massa 2022; Becker, 2023). Thus, our paper will discuss the opportunities and challenges of various paths towards doing so, including consumer pressure, regulation, industry standards and initiatives, and co-regulation.
URI:	https://digitalcollection.zhaw.ch/handle/11475/30896
Fulltext version:	Published version
License (according to publishing contract):	Licence according to publishing contract
Departement:	School of Management and Law
Organisational Unit:	Center for Corporate Responsibility (CCR)
Appears in collections:	Publikationen School of Management and Law

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