Video Game
Game
Documents about Video Game
Misleading Omissions of Loot Box Presence Disclosures: Widespread Unfair Commercial Practices in Video Game Advertising on Social Media in Ireland and the EU
This study investigates the compliance of video game advertising on social media with EU consumer law regarding the disclosure of loot box presence, focusing on Ireland.
- Among 1,417 social media ads for 147 loot-box games targeting Ireland, 86.3% failed to disclose in-game purchases generally and 88.6% failed to disclose loot boxes specifically, indicating widespread non-compliance with EU consumer law.
- Only 34 of 1,417 ads (2.4%) fully complied with consumer law, and only five of 147 games visually prominently disclosed loot box presence in at least one advertisement.
- Of the disclosures that did appear, roughly four in five were visually obscured and not reasonably prominent, typically small, faint text on low-contrast backgrounds.
How General Game Expertise Shapes Player Experience and Problem-Solving Across Different Onboarding Approaches in a Puzzle Video Game
This study examines how general game expertise, measured as self-reported weekly gaming hours and years of play, relates to player experience and problem-solving in the commercial puzzle game Baba Is You.
- Game expertise was associated with the number of levels completed, with a percentile-based effect of about 10 additional levels from the lowest to highest expertise, and no significant difference between onboarding approaches.
- Higher expertise was linked to more unique rule removals and additions, and to undo chains, but not to restarts or game ends.
- The Safe Problem-Solving group showed fewer unique rule removals and additions than the Tutorialized group.
Application of Causal Machine Learning to Compute the Effects of Video Game Intensity on Students' Academic Performance and Psychosocial Well-Being
This study investigates the causal effects of video game intensity on university students' academic performance and psychosocial well-being, specifically sleep quality and stress.
- The apparent negative link between gaming intensity and academic performance is largely explained by confounding and self-selection rather than a direct causal effect; after covariate adjustment, the Double/Debiased Machine Learning estimate of the average treatment effect on academic performance is statistically indistinguishable from zero.
- Gaming intensity has a consistent, statistically significant negative causal effect on sleep quality under Double/Debiased Machine Learning, and this pattern holds across heterogeneous treatment effect estimates, though the heterogeneity is modest in magnitude.
- The average causal effect of gaming intensity on stress is small and not statistically significant.
Video Game Market Update: Q1 2026
Aream & Co., a gaming-focused investment bank, publishes this Q1 2026 video game market update for subscribers.
- Q1-26 M&A reached $7.7bn across 52 transactions, led by Savvy's acquisition of Moonton at about $6bn.
- Steam set new all-time highs in quarterly revenue of $5.6bn and peak concurrent users of 42.7m.
- Console revenue hit a record $21.7bn, driven by the Nintendo Switch 2 hardware cycle, more than offsetting YoY declines at PlayStation (-4%) and Xbox (-9%).
Video Game News: French Market Overview 2025
SELL, the Union of Video Game Publishers, produced this 2025 overview of the French video game market, based on SELL data drawn from GSD, GameTrack, Sensor Tower and IDC panels as of the end of 2025, alongside a SELL/Médiamétrie online survey of 4,001 individuals conducted from 19 June to 13 July 2025.
- The French video game market reached €5.856 billion in 2025, up 2.9% from 2024, which the document describes as its second-best performance ever.
- The console ecosystem generated €2.552 billion, a 44% market share, and remained the largest of the three ecosystems by revenue.
- Mobile ecosystem revenue grew 11% to €1.792 billion in 2025, while PC gaming stayed flat at €1.512 billion.
Annual Report 2025: Video Games Poland
Video Games Poland, the Polish video game industry association (founded 2008, renamed in 2025 after a General Meeting decision effective April), reports on its 2025 activities across international and local work.
- Polish players report that games help them cope with stress, with 80% saying games help them feel less stressed. These figures come from the Power of Play survey of 1,072 Polish respondents.
- Social play is common among Polish gamers, with 71% playing online with others at least once a month. More than half also use in-game communication.
- Among Polish parents surveyed, 52% believe that playing video games has had a positive impact on their relationship with their children.
State of Gaming 2026
Sensor Tower's "State of Gaming 2026" covers the mobile, PC and console games markets worldwide for the full year 2025, using iOS App Store and Google Play data for mobile and Video Game Insights data for PC/Console (Steam, PlayStation and Xbox).
- Mobile game downloads fell 7.0% year over year in 2025 to 50 billion, while mobile IAP revenue rose 1.4% to $82 billion.
- Steam premium game revenue grew 13.0% year over year in 2025, reaching $11.7 billion.
- Battlefield 6 was the best-selling PC/Console game of 2025.
African Video Game Report 2026
The African Video Game Report 2026, co-produced by SpielFabrique with Xsolla as a supporter and written with Analytics for Africa and the Goethe-Institut involved, compiles available data on the African video game industry as of Q1 2026, with publication dated February 6, 2026.
- The African videogame market generated approximately USD $2.29 billion in revenue in 2025, with mobile gaming accounting for the majority of market value.
- Mobile is the dominant platform, generating about 60% of total market revenue in 2025.
- The authors state that Africa's videogame market as a whole reached US$1.8 billion in 2024, up 12.4% year over year.
State of African Games 2026
The State of African Games 2026 report from Video Game Insights (Sensor Tower) offers a data-driven snapshot of how African-developed games perform on Steam, PlayStation and Xbox.
- South Africa dominates the African game development sector, accounting for all top-ten selling titles and contributing to a 2% share of global Steam unit sales.
- The industry is shifting from volume-driven growth to longer development cycles, evidenced by a decline in annual Steam releases from a peak of 23 in 2023 to 11 in 2025.
- There is a significant genre mismatch in the market, as action titles dominate release volume while simulation games achieve the highest median sales at approximately 372,000 units.
Analysis & Exploration of Emotional Attachment in Video Game Character Design: A Case Study of Life is Strange
This study explores the role of character design in fostering emotional attachment within narrative-driven video games, specifically focusing on the experiences of Indonesian adolescents.
- Integrating moral decision-making mechanics into gameplay significantly deepens player immersion by granting agency over character outcomes and increasing emotional investment.
- Character design elements—including specific color palettes, facial expressions, and symbolic accessories—are foundational to shaping how players perceive and relate to digital avatars.
- Characters like Max Caulfield and Chloe Price function as archetypes that mirror adolescent struggles, specifically addressing themes of identity formation, rebellion, and social anxiety.
Business Case for an Enhanced Video Games Expenditure Credit: UK
Nordicity, commissioned by Ukie, produced a business case in February 2025 for an enhanced Video Game Expenditure Credit (VGEC).
- The current VGEC's effective rate on a £10 million project is 14%, an improvement compared to the VGTR at 12.2%, but the second lowest compared to all the other programmes not including the VGTR.
- Among the six scenarios, the combined package of a 53% rate for budgets up to £10 million and 39% on 100% of expenditure above £10 million gives the highest employment, GVA and tax increase in year five.
- The 53% rate for budgets up to £10 million alone gives a return of £2.12 per £1 of additional VGEC spend by year five, the highest per-pound return of the scenarios considered.
Cross-Platform Gaming: Bridging Mobile and PC/Console 2025
This Sensor Tower report, titled "Cross-Platform Gaming: Bridging Mobile and PC/Console 2025", examines how publishers can connect mobile gaming with PC and console titles.
- Mobile is described as the largest funnel for user acquisition, with 52 billion downloads and $82 billion in IAP revenue in 2025.
- PC and console generate over $12 billion from 1 billion units, anchoring high-value engagement, according to the report.
- The EA SPORTS FC 26 Companion App had 78 million global downloads, with players spending time in the app on mobile between console sessions.