2015
Company
Documents about 2015
Playful by Design: A Third Space Community of Practice for Game Studies & Design
"Playful by Design" presents the development of an interdisciplinary Game Studies & Design program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as a case study in building a "third space" community of practice.
- The authors argue that games now permeate many academic disciplines, yet tensions persist between critical game studies and professional design training, and between qualitative humanities and quantitative STEM methods, so the field is better served by re-centering on design practice and cultivating interdisciplinary third spaces.
- The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign program began with a 2015–2016 campus census that found game-related teaching and research scattered across colleges without any unifying structure.
- A 2017 Provost's Office grant established a Game Studies & Design unit offering undergraduate and graduate minors, later followed by an online professional Master's program, while the 'Playful by Design' research cluster's first symposium drew more than 300 attendees.
Africa Games Industry Report 2024
The Africa Games Industry Report 2024 presents a data-driven assessment of the continent’s gaming ecosystem, targeting investors, policymakers, developers and the broader public.
- The Sub-Saharan gamer base grew from 77 million in 2015 to 186 million in 2021, with mobile gaming driving 95% of the player base and nearly 90% of the region's $778.6 million revenue in 2022.
- Free-to-play with in-app purchases is the dominant revenue model, with approximately one-third of players currently making in-app purchases.
- Infrastructure remains the primary barrier to growth, with 71% of developers citing unreliable power and 57% citing high internet costs as significant impediments.
2024 Financial and Fan Support Structures in Korean eSports
The analysis examines the financial scale of Korean e-sports organizations and the patterns of fan support, drawing on a longitudinal budget survey (2015-2023) and two 2024 public opinion polls conducted across South Korea.
- Korean e-sports team expenditures grew nearly five-fold between 2015 and 2023, rising from 22.1 billion won to 111.6 billion won.
- Market investment is accelerating, with total team spending increasing by 15.9% between 2022 and 2023 alone.
- Fan loyalty is highly concentrated, as T1 commands 78.2% of identified team supporters, while the runner-up Gen.G holds only 5.4%.
Narrative Selfies and Player-Character Intimacy in Interface Games
This paper examines how selfies function within "interface games," narrative titles staged inside simulated computer, smartphone, or app environments, and how these images negotiate intimacy between player and character while constraining player agency.
- Selfies in interface games (narrative titles staged inside simulated computers, phones, or apps) act as a negotiation of intimacy between player and character, which the paper describes as a fragile tension between privacy and publicness.
- The paper applies Faimau's three frameworks (self-presentation, communication, and social critique) to three case studies: Cibele (2015), Bury Me, My Love, and A Normal Lost Phone.
- In Cibele, the curated desktop casts the player as a voyeur, a position partly excused by the autobiographical consent behind the work, and its restricted agency and linear structure are presented as purposeful rather than a design failure.
Stephen Reid Leaves Microsoft for Endless Foundation
Stephen Reid, a prominent figure in game-based learning, has departed Microsoft after a nine-year tenure to join the Endless Foundation as its vice president of learning.
- Stephen Reid has joined the non-profit Endless Foundation as vice president of learning after a nearly nine-year tenure at Microsoft.
- During his time at Microsoft, Reid served as the game-based learning lead and was instrumental in the creation and launch of Minecraft: Education Edition.
- Reid’s career at Microsoft began in 2015 as a creative consultant, followed by a transition to a full-time employee role in April 2020.
Will Your Steam 1.0 Launch Outpace Your Early Access Start?
This analysis examines the sales performance of games transitioning from Steam Early Access to a 1.0 full release, alongside an evaluation of Nintendo’s current corporate strategy.
- The median game experiences a 0.7x sales multiplier during its 1.0 launch window compared to its initial Early Access debut, meaning 1.0 launch sales typically trail the initial pre-release period.
- Performance variance is extreme: while the middle 50% of titles see multipliers between 0.35x and 1.35x, the top 5% of performers achieve multipliers exceeding 7.5x.
- Extended time in Early Access correlates with a lower 1.0 conversion ratio, as frequent updates and discounts tend to exhaust a game's existing wishlist before the official launch.
The Great Danish Playbook
The European video games industry is characterized by a paradoxical relationship between high cultural impact and a lack of long-term independent ownership.
- The European video games industry faces a structural vulnerability where successful studios like King, Supercell, and Guerrilla Games are frequently acquired by foreign conglomerates, leading to a decline in European-owned revenue between 2015 and 2019.
- To achieve long-term sustainability, the European sector must transition from its current role as an incubator for foreign acquisition to developing the infrastructure required to maintain independent ownership of its cultural exports.
- Denmark’s gaming ecosystem, which produced global hits like Subway Surfers, Hitman, and the Unity engine, utilizes a model of radical transparency and shared performance metrics to mitigate information asymmetries imposed by large tech platforms.
Mobile MOBA Games Market in 2026: Key Trends and Predictions
The mobile Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) market as of 2026 remains a highly competitive, high-growth sector primarily driven by mid-core gamers.
- Honor of Kings remains the global revenue leader with over $10 billion in lifetime player spending and more than 300 million downloads, primarily driven by its dominance in the Chinese market.
- Mobile Legends: Bang Bang has established itself as the leading global MOBA outside of China, generating over $1 billion in revenue and surpassing 500 million all-time downloads.
- IP-based games are a major market driver, with 43% of the top 200 grossing games in the U.S. and up to 70% in China utilizing popular intellectual properties to attract players.
Africa: The Next Frontier in Mobile Gaming - Mahmoud El-Azzeh, Carry1st.
Africa represents a significant emerging frontier for the global mobile gaming industry, characterized by a massive, youthful demographic and rapid economic growth.
- Africa's mobile gaming market is experiencing rapid expansion, with revenue projected to increase 7.3x between 2015 and 2024.
- The continent presents a massive opportunity with over 1.1 billion people under the age of 40 and a current base of more than 300 million mobile gamers.
- The primary barrier to monetization is not a lack of consumer willingness to pay, but the absence of localized payment rails that align with the regional banking landscape.
Media Convergence and Game-Based Learning: Developing a Hypothesis of Film Education for the Post-Media Age
Atzori's paper argues that film education should adopt a broad, inclusive understanding of "film" that encompasses video games and participatory media, treating these forms as spaces for experimentation rather than peripheral objects of study.
- The paper argues film education should adopt a broad definition of "film" that includes video games and participatory media, treating them as spaces for experimentation rather than peripheral objects of study, grounded in Gee's semiotic domains and Eugeni's "post-media condition."
- Machinima, films produced by recording gameplay within game engines, is framed as "transformative play" that turns players into creators and is presented as a constructionist, practice-based alternative to conventional film education linking critical analysis with filmmaking.
- The central case study is the 2002–2003 Casablanca Interactive Performance Experiment at the University of Cambridge, in which students recreated a Casablanca scene in the Unreal engine, which the paper identifies as a founding example of machinima as a pedagogical method.
Unpacking Student Perceptions of Board Game Mechanics
"Unpacking Student Perceptions of Board Game Mechanics" examines how undergraduate students at the University of Johannesburg experienced the Boardroom Challenge, a custom board game used as a formative assessment in an accountancy-related business management course.
- The study examines the Boardroom Challenge, a custom board game used as formative assessment in an accountancy-related business management course at the University of Johannesburg, run annually from 2015 to 2019 and resumed in 2022.
- Core mechanics are dice-driven scenario and theory questions, promotion up a corporate ladder to CEO, and game cash gained or lost based on answer accuracy, with secondary mechanics such as timers, lucky break cards, and game master roles added or refined through feedback.
- Thematic analysis of open-ended student feedback, supported by document analysis of rules, revisions, and training materials, surfaced three themes: perceptions of luck and unfairness, student agency in proposing improvements, and reflections on learning's future professional relevance.
Fate/Grand Order Hits $7 Billion in Revenue: Japan Market Analysis
The mobile role-playing game Fate/Grand Order, published by Aniplex, has reached a significant financial milestone by surpassing $7 billion in lifetime player spending.
- Fate/Grand Order has surpassed $7 billion in lifetime global player spending eight years after its 2015 launch.
- The Japanese market is the primary revenue driver, accounting for 81.1% of the game's total global earnings.
- The title generated approximately $1.6 billion in revenue during the two-year period ending in August 2023, demonstrating sustained commercial viability.