Chris J. Young

University of Toronto | U of T · UTM Library

On January 18, Microsoft revealed its $68.7 billion deal to acquire videogame publisher Activision Blizzard. The acquisition was pitched as an investment towards “metaverse platforms” that gaming would play a key role in developing. Journalists speculated about the increasing consolidation of the videogame industry and whether blockbuster franchise...

Based on an ethnography of gamemaking in the Toronto game development scene, I introduce the concept of the everyday gamemaker to reveal how the everyday turn of game production work has transformed the identities of gameworkers. Whereas, previous research has documented the extensive self-exploitation and willingness of creative workers to accept...

These are the presentation slides on the Canadian Game Industry as part of the panel on Game Development Studies.

The video game industry has grown from manufacturers of coin operated arcade machines in dedicated spaces, to producers of mass media and omnipresent software as “constantly updated media services” (Sotamaa & Svelch, 2021, p. 9). News and financial statements are often dominated by major blockbusters (e.g. Call of Duty series (Activision, 2003 - )...

The notion of scenes has helped frame how particular clusters of cultural activities, practices, and "happenings" simultaneously replicate and transform global practices in specific localities. The study of scenes has aided us in examinations of how geographic and virtual localities create and shape global industries, movements, and genres. In this...

This session covers an introduction to game design and making, and an overview of critical game making and how to use it in pedagogical settings. Participants in the session activity will learn how to explore and reflect critically on topics and issues in their disciplines through the process of game making. Participants will also learn how to use...

The decolonial walkthrough session can be used for a workshop or a class exercise aimed at students and professionals with little to no experience with decolonial theory and digital methods. The instructor for the session should apply the content as appropriate for their discipline and curriculum goals and objectives. Content in this session covers...

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 gov...

In this paper, we introduce the notion of production platforms by exploring the political economy of the real-time animation platform Unity by Unity Technologies. Contributing to the debate on the ‘platformization of cultural production’ by examining the penetration of Unity’s economic, infrastructural, and governance extensions beyond its platform...

To critically engage with the political economy of platformization, this article builds on the concepts of platform capitalism and platform imperialism to situate platforms within wider historical, economic, and spatial trajectories. To investigate if platformization leads to the geographical redistribution of capital and power, we draw on the Cana...

This commentary discusses the political economy of apps. The authors found that Canadian-made game apps are notably absent in the Canadian App Store. This should be both worrying and surprising, as Canada has a relatively sizable game industry. While policy conversations on digital transformation focus on emerging technology, the authors point towa...

This article introduces a special issue critically investigating contemporary formations of digital game labor, with a focus on the political-economic forces, social inequalities, and technological dynamics mutually shaping these formations. Accounts of game industry practices have been at the forefront of efforts within media studies to document a...

This data set is from the App Imperialism research project conducted by the App Studies Initiative researchers at the University of Toronto. To critically engage with the political economy of platformization, this data set contributes to research on the concepts of platform capitalism and platform imperialism to situate platforms within wider histo...

In this paper, we introduce the notion of app imperialism by exploring the political economy of the Canadian iOS App Store. Building on Dal Yong Jin's concept of "platform imperialism", we argue that US companies dominate global app stores through the systematic acquisition of capital resources. App imperialism marks the outsized economic footprint...

This dissertation examines the emergence of everyday gamemakers and their roles in transforming the cultural norms and practices of the global video game industry. Everyday gamemakers are digital game creators who share multiple professional and leisure-based gamemaking identities, including developers, “indies,” modders, user-generated content cre...

Published as part of Routledge Studies in Innovation, Organization and Technology (RIOT!), The Video Game Industry, edited by Peter Zackariasson and Timothy L. Wilson, provides a predominantly technological and economic perspective on the video game industry in North America and Europe. As the title of this book review suggests, the aim of this vol...