Journal of Economic Geography Advance Access originally published online on June 22, 2005
Journal of Economic Geography 2006 6(2):151-180; doi:10.1093/jeg/lbi001
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Video games production networks: value capture, power relations and embeddedness
* Geography, School of Environment and Development, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK. email 
jennifer.l.johns{at}manchester.ac.uk
This paper has two main aims. Firstly to conceptualize the production networks of the video games industry through an examination of its evolution into a multi-million dollar industry. Secondly, to use the video games industry to demonstrate the utility of Global Production Network approaches to understanding the geographically uneven impacts of globalization processes. In particular, three key notions of value, power and embeddedness are used to reveal the most powerful actors in the production network, how they maintain and exercise their power, and how the organization of production is manipulated as a result. It is argued that while hardware production is organized by console manufacturers using truly global sourcing strategies, the production of software is far more complex. In fact, software production networks are bounded within three major economic regions: Western Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. This paper seeks to explain how and why this has occurred.
Keywords: video games, global production networks, value, power, embeddedness,
JEL classifications: L14, L23, L82
Date submitted: 4 October 2004
Date accepted: 12 April 2005
CiteULike 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us What's this?
This article has been cited by other articles:
|
|
 |
|
  C. Teipen Work and Employment in Creative Industries: The Video Games Industry in Germany, Sweden and Poland Economic and Industrial Democracy, August 1, 2008; 29(3): 309 - 335. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 N. M. Coe, P. Dicken, and M. Hess Global production networks: realizing the potential J. Econ. Geogr., May 1, 2008; 8(3): 271 - 295. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 N. Ettlinger The predicament of firms in the new and old economies: a critical inquiry into traditional binaries in the study of the space-economy Progress in Human Geography, February 1, 2008; 32(1): 45 - 69. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 M. Deuze, C. B. Martin, and C. Allen The Professional Identity of Gameworkers Convergence, November 1, 2007; 13(4): 335 - 353. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 M. Power Digitized Virtuosity: Video War Games and Post-9/11 Cyber-Deterrence Security Dialogue, June 1, 2007; 38(2): 271 - 288. [Abstract] [PDF]
|
|
|
|
|
|
S. Reimer Geographies of production I Progress in Human Geography, April 1, 2007; 31(2): 245 - 255. [PDF]
|
|