#10: Press Start to read: Levelling-up my gaming industry knowledge

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Book #10: One Up - Joost Van Dreunen

Type      Non-fiction
Genre     Business and Economics
Format    Hardback
Pages     225
Completed 24 Mar 2023
My rating ***        

Book ten goes in a bit of a different direction to my previous reads, with a non-fiction deep-dive into the video game industry. I put this book on my list because I was interested to understand more about the economics behind an industry I have been a part of since childhood. Beyond this connection, it’s also an industry that is rapidly growing worldwide, accelerating since the pandemic.

Unfortunately, the book is far more detailed and numerical than I expected and contains a lot of large tables that don’t convey much insight without some interrogation. There are also some nicer graphs that tell a few stories but overall the level of detail was more than I was looking for.

Still, among the detail were some really interesting examples of how the economics in the gaming world have changed over time, covering the inception of the gaming industry, the beginning of the ‘freemium’ model through smartphones and apps and onto e-sports emerging as a new sub-category within the industry.

I rated the book 3-stars - a decent read and worth my time but a bit drier than expected.

P.S. for the non-gamers out there the title ‘One Up’ is a reference to the phrase ‘1UP’ that can be seen on most arcade machines indicating that a player has gained an?extra life ?in-game, extending their play. Originally this was used to signal when it was each players turn (1up, 2up etc) on?early pinball machines .

Takeaway #10: Trade-in schemes were margin-multipliers (not just a loyalty drive)

As another fact-heavy read, I have one interesting takeaway below, followed by a list of game industry trivia for anyone who is curious about the facts and figures.

For me, the most interesting analysis in the book was that around the economics of video game trade-in schemes. I understood the basics but had never appreciated how it cuts the publishers out of the recurring profits. Read my explanation (plus some gaming trivia for good measure!) here .

Lesson #10: Notetaking innovations anyone?

After getting used to the luxuries of the kindle (highlights, notes, dictionary), returning to a fact-dense physical book was frustrating for the simple reason that I haven’t formed a good note-taking habit for them. I am often reading whilst travelling, or in bed, so don’t always have a pen or sticky notes to hand…

I’ve decided what would be great is if someone could invent a flat pen or pencil which doubles up as a bookmark when not in use. If anyone knows whether this exists, please let me know !

The LinkedIn Newsletter format is a bit tricky to use, so if you're enjoying getting notifications, please subscribe over on my Substack blog as I will eventually stop using the Newsletter.