Cambridge Business Association
Changing the Game
Book

Changing the Game

How Video Games Are Transforming the Future of Business

David Edery and Ethan Mollick
FT Press, 2008
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

Video games are so commonplace that you probably don’t see them as a launching pad to the next frontier of innovation, but David Edery and Ethan Mollick will make you think twice about that. They present an eloquent, persuasive case for the enormous potential that video games have to transform business. The authors illustrate the way that a growing number of organizations are utilizing virtual worlds to advertise their goods and services, train their workers and attract potential employees. They’ll amaze you as they recount how rapidly video games have progressed since Pac-Man and Space Invaders first appeared in bowling alley arcades. getAbstract applauds the authors’ scholarship and research, and their ability to illuminate this topic for a corporate audience. Anyone involved in technology innovation, or personnel training and management, could learn a lot by playing along. Video games are serious business and they generate serious money.

Summary

Riding the Video Game Wave

Video games aren’t just for kids – or even just for adults who enjoy acting like kids. Many businesses are beginning to recognize the benefits of incorporating video games into their daily practices. Companies can use games to promote their products and services, improve customer relationships, recruit talented employees and raise workplace performance. For instance, surgeons who use video game simulators while training in medical school make fewer mistakes in the real world. Microsoft uses games to entice employees to volunteer for boring yet necessary tasks.

Video games are a huge business. They generate more income than “Hollywood box office revenues.” Microsoft video heavyweight Halo 3 earned $170 million in the U.S. within a day of its launch, surpassing the movie debut of Spider-Man 3 and the release of the novel Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Video games permeate multiple aspects of society, yet many managers find the notion of “games” in the workplace unacceptable. Nonetheless, properly utilized video games have enormous training potential and can help ensure organizational success. Video games foster...

About the Authors

David Edery is the Worldwide Games Portfolio Manager for Microsoft’s Xbox Live Arcade. Ethan Mollick studies innovation and entrepreneurship in the game industry at MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

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