Skip Navigation



Journal of Economic Geography Advance Access published online on June 22, 2005
Journal of Economic Geography, doi:10.1093/jeg/lbi001
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
6/2/151    most recent
lbi001v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Johns, J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author (2005). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oupjournals.org
Received October 4, 2004
Accepted April 12, 2005

Article

Video games production networks: value capture, power relations and embeddedness

Jennifer Johns 1*

1 Geography, School of Environment and Development, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Jennifer Johns, E-mail: jennifer.l.johns{at}manchester.ac.uk


  Abstract

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.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Ind Corp ChangeHome page
H. Yoon and E. J. Malecki
Cartoon planet: worlds of production and global production networks in the animation industry
Ind. Corp. Change, September 7, 2009; (2009) dtp040v1.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Games and CultureHome page
C. B. Martin and M. Deuze
The Independent Production of Culture: A Digital Games Case Study
Games and Culture, July 1, 2009; 4(3): 276 - 295.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 New Media SocietyHome page
B. Hutchins
Signs of meta-change in second modernity: the growth of e-sport and the World Cyber Games
New Media Society, December 1, 2008; 10(6): 851 - 869.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Economic and Industrial DemocracyHome page
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]

Home page
 J ECON GEOGRHome page
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]

Home page
 Prog Hum GeogrHome page
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]

Home page
 ConvergenceHome page
M. Deuze, C. B. Martin, and C. Allen
The Professional Identity of Gameworkers
Convergence, November 1, 2007; 13(4): 335 - 353.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Security DialogueHome page
M. Power
Digitized Virtuosity: Video War Games and Post-9/11 Cyber-Deterrence
Security Dialogue, June 1, 2007; 38(2): 271 - 288.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Prog Hum GeogrHome page
S. Reimer
Geographies of production I
Progress in Human Geography, April 1, 2007; 31(2): 245 - 255.
[PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.