IP Is the King and Labor Its Steward – a Look Into the Modern State of the European Video Game Industry

Abstract

This thesis is an exploration on how the ownership and labor forces are situated in the gaming industry. The aim of this research is to investigate the modern state of video game development in Europe, as it is trying to gain the lead on ownership of the intellectual properties (IPs) the US has had over the years. I will use the examples of Belgian Larian Studios, and its most recent game Baldur's Gate 3 based on the IP owned by the US company Wizards of the Coast, and the Finnish studio Remedy Entertainment and its various partnerships with the US based publishers to explain how the European studios have traditionally fulfilled the role of developers while the IP ownership comes from elsewhere. The thesis uses transnational analysis and applies that to reports by the European Game Developers Federation regarding the video game industry in the EU, pairing it with the previous literature regarding the video game industry. The video game industry has had a significant rise in revenue in recent decades, thus enabling more developers to join it. Yet, thanks to the market saturation, it remains risky and cost intensive to try to establish large scale studios able to produce their own IPs and compete internationally. However, the studio can build gradual success in less risky ways of developing foreign, often the US based, IPs before branching out.