State of Play Looks at Globalizations Effect on Creativity in the Games Industry

The latest BBC News State of Play casts a critical eye on the effect homogeneity as a product of globalization is having on the creativity of today’s gaming industry. With the video game industry being concentrated in Los Angeles and Tokyo, few gamers will think of Austin as a gaming mecca. Yet Developers such as BioWare, Midway, NCSoft and Sony Online Entertainment have opened studios there and have stayed.

Many other smaller but successful centers of industry have sprung up world wide, each with it’s own cultural and philosophical ideals to add to their titles. However there is a strong tendency for developers to globalize their games, cutting out the culture, local style and mythos that can make a game unique in hopes of selling their titles to a wider audience. The result is that gaming maybe losing the uniqueness and creativity that diversity brings to each title. Read more on this growing problem on BBC News Technology.