Games are not convergence: The lost promise of digital production and convergence

Abstract

This article critically examines the notion of ‘convergence’ as it applies to videogames and videogame development. Drawing on data from more than five years of ethnographic fieldwork amongst ‘AAA’ videogame development studios, the specific case of Spider-Man 3’s development is used as a lens for understanding the complexity of modern media production practice. This case sheds light on our understandings of cross-media development practice and the labor involved in the effect of media ‘flow’ from platform to platform. Actor-Network Theory serves as a guiding analytic framework for understanding how videogame production in this context, given the sheer number of actors, has significant implications for the kinds of cross-media products created and the labor involved in bringing these projects to fruition.