Playing the game: corporate social responsibility and the games industry

• Author: David Hillier,Peter Jones,Daphne Comfort
• Published date: 01 August 2013
• Date: 01 August 2013
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1457

■Research Note

Playing the game: corporate social

responsibility and the games industry

Peter Jones

1

*, Daphne Comfort

1

and David Hillier

2

1

Business School, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham, UK

2

Centre for Police Sciences, University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd, UK

This paper provides an exploratory review of both the corporate social responsibility (CSR) agendas and

achievements bein g publicly addressed by the world’s leading games companies, and offers some wider reflections

on the ways these compan ies are constructing and pursui ng CSR strategies. The paper beg ins with a short discussion

of the origins and characteristics of CSR and a thumbnail sketch of games and the games industry. The empirical

material for the paper is drawn from the CSR material posted on the Internet by the world’stop10gamescompanies.

The findings reveal that although the majority of the top 10 games companies provide some information on their

approach to CSR, only a minority claim to be integrating CSR into their core business activities. Although the

companies emphasize their commitment to promoting responsible gaming, they offer little if any commentary

on what many critics see as the potentially damaging human consequences of the irresponsible development and

playing of games. The majority of the top 10 games companies also address a wide range of impacts within the

marketplace, the workplace, the environment and communities in which they operate. Although the leading games

companies generally adopt a positive stance towards CSR, the independent external assessment of the reporting

process is limited. More generally, the paper offers some critical reflections on the CSR agenda currently being

pursued by the games in dustry. The paper provides an overvie w and some reflections on the CSR agenda being

pursued by some of the wo rld’s leading games companies, and as such, it will interest academics in business and

management, and information systems and media departments, a range of people wo rking in management posi tions

within the games ind ustry and those profe ssionals who work wi th the industry. Copyright © 2013 Jo hn Wiley &

Sons, Ltd.

INTRODUCTION

The games industry, initially often seen as a niche

entertainment principally for children and teenagers,

now provides a wide range of entertainments for a

seeminglyeverincreasingnumberofpeopleofall

ages, and it has become a dynamic multi-million

pound global industry. Although Dyer-Witheford

and Sharman (2005) have suggested that some of

the most popular games ‘rank amongst the cultural

icons of our era’, Asi Burak, Co-President of Games

for Change, a US not for profit gaming advocacy

organization, cl aims ‘games will be the dominant

mediaformofthe21stcentury’(World of Business

Ideas, 2012). The range of games, taken throughout

this paper to embrace both video and computer

games, on the market seems to be constantly

expanding and in cludes action games, adventure

games, role-playing games, simulation games,

strategy games, vehicle simulation games, adult

games, music games and educational games.

Anumberofbenefits are claimed for games

including individual and family entertainment;

the development of children’sliteracyandnumeracy

skills; the development of life skills, for example,

delegating responsibility, promoting teamwork

and steering groups of people towards common

goals, by teenagers and students, which may prove

valuable in entering the world of work; enhanced

problem solvingskills and higher levels of perceptual

and cognitive ability amongst adults (Steinberg, 2012).

However, games have also attracted widespreadvocal

criticism and controversy (Prot et al., 2012). Criticisms

have included con cerns about the de velopment

of, and desensitization to, aggressive and violent

behaviour amongst young people: gender bias,

gender stereotyping and the portrayal of woman

as sex objects; explicit sex; the exploitative and

commercialistic nature of games and the compulsive

playing of games and the development of addictive

*Correspondence to: Peter Jones, Emeritus Professor, Business

School, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham, UK.

E-mail: pjones@glos.ac.uk

Journal of Public Affairs

Volume 13 Number 3 pp 335–344 (2013)

Published online 20 March 2013 in Wiley Online Library

(www.wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/pa.1457

Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.