How Video Games are Shaped by Capitalism w/ Daniel Joseph

Paris Marx is joined by Daniel Joseph to discuss the relationship between video games and capitalism, how the gaming experience has become increasingly commercialized, and what the new consoles — Xbox Series X|S and Playstation 5 — herald for the future of the industry.

Daniel Joseph is a Senior Lecturer of Digital Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University. Read his articles for Real Life about video games and capitalism and platformization, and for Briarpatch about what better platforms might look like. Follow Daniel on Twitter as @DanjoKaz00ie.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter.

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Also mentioned in this episode:

• “If Xbox is Netflix, then Playstation is cinema” by Christopher Dring at GamesIndustry.biz
• How PS4 better positioned itself against Xbox One, including a short video about trading games
• Nintendo was charged with price fixing in the 1990s in the United States and Europe
• In 2015, Valve and Bethesda had to backtrack on plans to commercialize modding
• 53% of PS4 game sales were digital in 2019. That grew to 74% in the early part of 2020.
• David Nieborg and Thomas Poell’s work on platforms; Sarah Grimes’ work on commercialization of children’s gaming; the App Studies Initiative; and T.L. Taylor’s “Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming”