The digital apocalypse: how the games industry is rising again

From mid-cycle PlayStation upgrades to episodic entertainment and virtual studios, something big is happening in the way games are bought, made and sold

For 30 years the games industry worked in a certain way. People rented offices and set up studios to create games; they employed staff to work in-house, then got those projects funded and distributed by publishers. If you wanted to opt out of that setup, you worked alone, or in a small team, as an indie developer - you operated in a totally separate stratosphere; the system neatly self-segregated. Meanwhile, in the background, the business worked to the seven-year cycles dictated by the lifespan of the major consoles. It was a machine of discreet components.

But that machine is rusting and falling apart. Something new is coming.