Finnish game developers in transforming the industry

Abstract

Digital platforms have been gaining popularity and have become increasingly prominent players in the market. Their emergence can be attributed to technological advancements and societal needs. Previous literature on the topic has not looked into the particularities of the gaming industry and how the transformation of the sector these platforms bring affects smaller players on the market. Therefore, this thesis aims to study how these digital distribution platforms emerged in the gaming industry and how Finnish developers and game studios experienced the change, as well as build a framework for these developers and studios to utilize when approaching game distribution platforms and publishers. The research questions were: "How does platform creation happen in the gaming industry?" and "How does platformization of the gaming industry impact companies that are not powerful enough to control or create a platform?". The literature review encompasses platform economy, digital platforms, platform launching strategies, platformization, and digital platforms from users' viewpoints. Research is conducted through desk research on platform emergences in the gaming industry and semi-structured interviews on the effects of platformization on Finnish developers and studios. The results of this work highlight the connection between existing theory in platform emergence and the current situation in the gaming industry. It shows that creating a successful platform is almost exclusively a prerogative of large corporations. It also explores Finnish developers' effects from platformization, concluding that the industry's transformation benefits smaller studios. The author also built a framework for starting developers when they need to consider different publishing tasks during platform selection processes.