Feedback and AfL

Cross-boundary knowledge integration has attracted much attention in recent research due to the importance and challenges of having an effective working relationship in such contexts. The literature suggests different methods and strategies to enable organisations to facilitate knowledge integration across their knowledge domains. At the same time, the literature emphasises that this can be a problematic and complicated process when there are high levels of differences, dependencies and novelty between different disciplines working together (Majchrzak et al., 2012).

In this review, three key factors were identified to be effective in facilitating knowledge processes across boundaries. In the course of the literature review I identified three areas in the existing theoretical and empirical literature that need further research. To address these limitations, this research aims to examine knowledge processes within the cross-boundary practices of the large publishers and small/medium-sized developers in the creative and innovative setting of videogames development. The study will look at cross-boundary practices, the conflicts experienced within these boundaries, while at the same time looking for practices or methods that encourage knowledge integration within the developer-publisher collaboration. In order to achieve this, the research will address the following questions:

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RQ1: How do boundary objects influence knowledge processes across the publisher-developer organisational boundaries?

RQ2: How do power relations influence knowledge processes across the publisher-developer organisational boundaries?

RQ3: How does developing trust influence knowledge processes across the publisher-developer organisational boundaries?

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Chapter Three: An Overview of the Videogames Industry

This chapter provides a general overview of the videogames industry, introducing its six distinctive actors. The chapter focuses on two of these actors, developers and publishers, outlining their features and main responsibilities in developing videogames.

I provide the statistics for the developers in the UK because the companies I have studied were all based in the UK. However, for the publishers section, I present a more general and global overview of the publishers and their function. This is because the publishers involved in my research were multinational firms. Later in this chapter, I highlight the importance of the publisher-developer relationship in the industry, explaining how this collaboration is formed and governed. The chapter underlines that the industry rhetoric depicts the publisher-developer relationship as conflicting and irreconcilable. Finally, I add that this negative portrayal inspired me to examine the publisher-developer relationship in order to understand how knowledge can be integrated in such a complicated setting.

Over the past three decades, the videogame industry has grown from a niche technology sector to a mainstream consumer entertainment, providing interactive content to a vast range of consumer segments. The global videogames market is worth over $100 billion annually, with a 6.2 per cent increase in worldwide revenue in 2016 (Newzoo, 2017). It is predicted that the entire games market will reach $188.6 billion by 2019 with a projected growth of 6.6 per cent (Newzoo, 2017). In comparison, the global film industry recorded worldwide revenues of $38 billion by the end of 2015 and is expected to grow to $50 billion by 2020, which is surprisingly much lower than the total videogame revenue (Ukie, 2017).

In terms of regional segmentation, China has overtaken the USA as the world’s biggest market – $24.4 billion versus $23.6 billion. Given the greater number of residents in the region and the capacity of gaming to reach full market penetration, it is expected that China's global lead will only expand over time (Newzoo, 2017). However, the two market leaders, China and the USA, have significantly different sources of revenue, with the USA remaining established in its traditional market of games consoles and virtual reality (VR) at a $9.9bn share. On the other hand, China heavily focuses on the

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PC market (consumers using personal computers to play games) at a $15.2bn share (Ukie, 2017). In terms of revenue generation, the UK videogames industry is the sixth largest game market after China, the USA, Japan, South Korea and Germany (Ukie, 2017).

The videogames industry in the UK is recognised as contributing significantly to the creative economy (TIGA, 2016). In 2014, the videogames sector accounted for £1,115 million of the UK’s GDP and generated £471 million for HM Treasury in tax revenues (TIGA, 2017). The UK houses twenty three of the most successful and profitable game studios in the world, having produced titles such as Football Manager, Tomb Raider and Grand Theft Auto – the fifth iteration of which as of 2016 has sold more than 70 million copies worldwide (TIGA, 2016). Game development is regarded as a knowledge industry, employing highly-skilled and trained individuals. The number of skilled employees who work directly in games development reached 10,869 in 2014 (TIGA, 2017). A recent report highlighted that "there are 2,141 active games companies in the UK, operating at all sizes and scales, with world-class talent" and 95% of these companies are micro or small businesses" (Ukie, 2017).

The videogame industry is made up of six distinctive and connected layers, including publishers, developers (talent), production tools, hardware, distribution and retail, and customers (Bethke, 2003).

• Publishers are medium to large organisations that develop games either internally or fund external studios to develop them and seek returns through licensing, selling and distributing these games in the market.

• Videogame developers are composed of talents, such as artists, designers and programmers who work either independently, or in collaboration with a publisher under project-based temporary contracts, or they might be owned by the publisher.

• Production tools refer to game engines, middleware or production management tools that are used to create games. There are companies within the industry that create and sell this software to both publishers and developers.

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• Hardware refers to the underlying platform required to run the game, which may be a games console or PC, online-based, or accessed through mobile devices such as the iPhone.

• Distribution or retail refer to the companies that are involved in marketing and channelling of games to the end user, via stores or online distribution portals.

• Customers are the end-users or players of the games.

Since this thesis focuses on the publisher-developer relationship, in the next two sections I elaborate on developers and publishers.