Cover Image: One Up

One Up

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Member Reviews

A well done nonfiction about gaming and the videogame industry! I would definitely recommend this to any students who enjoy videogames or programming/coding in general.

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Very few books offer a dazzling view not only of the development of the gaming industry but also the video game industry as this one.

This book takes a new importance for people who are awestruck with the current GameStop stock rally we are all witnessing. Gamers are an elusive and often misunderstood bunch and the saga only reinforces that. As a gamer myself, very few industry analysts get video games right the way Joos van Dreunen does. Surprising given the spending on video games dwarves even movies and music.

There are multiple forces that are working for the industry -- faster processors, improving gameplay quality, proliferation of the mobile as a gaming device, broader adoption across age groups and ubiquity of the internet that facilitates live multiplayer gaming across the world.

If you want to understand gaming as a business, this is a must read. After all, gaming is expected to be the next big platform with the rise of AR/VR.

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This book is a must read for people wanting to excel in the gaming industry. Lots of creatives and developers are so immerse in their passion that they forget this is just a business. Van Dreunen makes a very detail case on the in and out of how the gaming industry works, how it has evolved, how some strategies became successful while others tank. Something remarkable about Van Dreunen work is that the lack of information about this industry didn't stop him, instead he develop his own charts and tables to explain the evolution of the industry.

If you want to live from gaming, One Up should be on your short list of readings.

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The video game industry has held my interest for a long time. As a semi-active gamer, I have tried to keep my head on a swivel with how things have changed, but this book does a phenomenal job of breaking it all down. Games have changed, and so has the philosophy behind them in some places. More than a product, games are a service and a source of media entertainment. Companies behind the games and consoles we love have to figure out how to not only create great content but how to market it effectively and develop continuous revenue streams from their work. They also have to determine how to predict the future to keep us on the hook. No doubt, One Up is an academic work. It can be tough to read in some places, but if you have a genuine interest in the industry and how you fit into it as a consumer, the reward is worth it.

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A nice book about the industry with a range of different games and companies. Nice graphs and tables illustrate points and make this very informative and researched. I personally would have liked more about the psychology about the game marketing but the focus of this non fiction book was set different.

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As a person that loves video games and Twitch, this was a fun read and I definitely recommend you give it a go if you're interested in video games.

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One-up is a pretty solid overview how the business of computer games evolved. This is not the history of computer games, lacks in places some of the stories about the coin operated computer game business and focusses mostly about the groundbreaking changes which has lead computer gaming which displaced a lot of the other entertainment options we used to use. The blockbuster business of the big gaming franchises rival and surpass major movie franchises like Marvel or Star Wars. The dynamics are dynamic, and the information is compiled based on a lot of original research, and well presented.

I would recommend the book in the category "business" for non-fiction readers, or for investors in the market places. The mechanics of financing and amortizing computer game development is at the center of the book and truly illuminating.

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What I liked:
One Up will definitely be my go-to reference book on the video gaming industry alongside a number of other established texts about the media/entertainment business (e.g. Vogel’s Entertainment Industry Economics). Van Dreunen supports all of his points with compelling data and analysis of historical record — he leverages his knowledge and credibility as the founder and CEO of SuperData to the full extent. He also makes a convincing case (given that this is the book’s central thesis) that the video gaming industry isn’t the product of creative geniuses working in isolation, but rather the result of teams, institutions, and systems that resemble other established media and technology businesses. The book puts a lot of what I already knew from the news and my personal experiences in context and in relation to each other, and it is written in way that those who may only recognize a few references will still be able to fully appreciate the messaging and implications.

What could be changed:
While the book does a great job of speaking to people who are either in the gaming business or aspire to be, it could do a better job of convincing those who aren’t yet believers in the business, or don’t take it as seriously as other media/entertainment verticals, as to why they should care. This is fundamentally the concern of many people in the business — we know it’s not just a toy fad, and we have told others as such, but we need to make the case with all of the strengths of the industry: a true art form and unique storytelling vehicle, a mature and established ecosystem, and most importantly, a leading indicator of the dynamic consumer behavior forces at play. Additionally, while the author has mentioned the impact of COVID-19 on the growth of live streaming, some of the examples feel like they need to be updated further (e.g. future of GameStop, especially given that many stores have closed).

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A fantastic, well-researched look at the video game industry. It's not as compulsively readable as I was hoping, but it was certainly informative! 4.5 Stars

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