How Gaming is Changing the Media Landscape

Gaming has dominated the entertainment industry, eclipsing the revenues for both film and music. As the current CEO of Unity Technologies and the former CEO of Electronic Arts, John Riccitiello is at the forefront of this $139B industry. In this conversation with a16z general partner Andrew Chen, he discusses the forces that are propelling gaming’s unprecedented growth—from platform convergence to live streaming—as well as Unity's expansion into the film, automotive, and architecture industries.

Highlights

Gaming World-wide has reached over three billion users. [2:13]

How Unity has revolutionized the game creation experience, from cross-platform formatting to accelerating game production [4:55]

How Unity shifted its focus from mobile gaming to cross-platform. [11:31]

The game industry’s evolution from physical media to digital and interactive gameplay. [15:15]

How the game industry has leveraged technology, social interaction, and novelty to grow exponentially. [17:03]

The rise of digital gaming—from console to game studios [24:45]

The enormous opportunities available via direct-to-consumer gaming. [32:55]

The challenges behind creating the “Netflix” of gaming [36:01]

New technologies and the rise of cloud gaming. [37:38]

Gaming’s impact on other industries [40:34]

Pull Quotes

“I think the economics will end up being a little bit different because it’s not an unfettered competitive marketplace. It’s one that’s controlled by an individual capitalist that thinks eSports is a marketing program.”

“For a lot of your children, if not some of you here: their digital handle around gaming provides them a level of social status that is actually both exciting and a little bit scary. They’re important in that world.”