Abstract

This work analyzes features and industrial structure of the Italian video game market. The first section contains sales data readings, both synchronic and diachronic, that point out significant traits and features of the field in general. The obtained results definitely confirm all the trends of main international markets, especially regarding hardware and mobile areas. The second section analyzes the contemporary Italian video game industry. After a brief introduction on the different actors active in the production chain (developers, publishers, distributors), a desk analysis specifically examines the game development protagonists. A diachronic reading of sales volumes and profits of 24 companies identifies the deep economic, structural and institutional difficulties that frustrate the rise of a solid national video game industry. The last part describes different sector modifications of the last five years trying to understand if these changes can help the field to overcome its peculiar ultraconservative policy.