Take video games seriously! Yes, they’re fun, but they matter culturally too

Why do newspaper culture pages and serious radio and TV largely ignore the biggest entertainment medium in the world?

Why do video games receive so little coverage in mainstream cultural media? It's a question that's troubled me for years - I even made a programme about it for Radio 4. Games are the largest entertainment medium in the world. And yet newspaper culture pages tend not to cover them (pace Observer Tech Monthly). Cultural programmes on TV and radio do a fun segment about games once a quarter at best while reserving discussion and analysis for interpretive dance or experimental opera.

It's very weird for me: my novels, which sell tens of thousands of copies, are shortlisted for prizes that appear on the news. My games, which have sold millions of copies, don't make the news. Film and TV Baftas are a news story. Games Baftas are an industry event.