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About PAK Licenses

A license specifies the options that are enabled on a given ASA. It is represented by an activation key that is a bit (5 bit words or 20 bytes) value. This value encodes the serial number (an 11 character string) and the enabled features.

Preinstalled License

By default, your ASA ships with a license already installed. This license might be the Base License, to which you want to add more licenses, or it might already have all of your licenses installed, depending on what you ordered and what your vendor installed for you.

Permanent License

You can have one permanent activation key installed. The permanent activation key includes all licensed features in a single key. If you also install time-based licenses, the ASA combines the permanent and time-based licenses into a running license.

Time-Based Licenses

In addition to permanent licenses, you can purchase time-based licenses or receive an evaluation license that has a time-limit. For example, you might buy a time-based AnyConnect Premium license to handle short-term surges in the number of concurrent SSL VPN users, or you might order a Botnet Traffic Filter time-based license that is valid for 1 year.

Note	The ASA X and ASA W-X do not support time-based licenses.

Time-Based License Activation Guidelines

• You can install multiple time-based licenses, including multiple licenses for the same feature. However, only one time-based license per feature can be active at a time. The inactive license remains installed, and ready for use. For example, if you install a session AnyConnect Premium license, and a session AnyConnect Premium license, then only one of these licenses can be active.

• If you activate an evaluation license that has multiple features in the key, then you cannot also activate another time-based license for one of the included features. For example, if an evaluation license includes the Botnet Traffic Filter and a session AnyConnect Premium license, you cannot also activate a standalone time-based session AnyConnect Premium license.

How the Time-Based License Timer Works

• The timer for the time-based license starts counting down when you activate it on the ASA.

• If you stop using the time-based license before it times out, then the timer halts. The timer only starts again when you reactivate the time-based license.

• If the time-based license is active, and you shut down the ASA, then the timer stops counting down. The time-based license only counts down when the ASA is running. The system clock setting does not affect the license; only ASA uptime counts towards the license duration.

How Permanent and Time-Based Licenses Combine

When you activate a time-based license, then features from both permanent and time-based licenses combine to form the running license. How the permanent and time-based licenses combine depends on the type of license. The following table lists the combination rules for each feature license.

Note	Even when the permanent license is used, if the time-based license is active, it continues to count down.

Stacking Time-Based Licenses

In many cases, you might need to renew your time-based license and have a seamless transition from the old license to the new one. For features that are only available with a time-based license, it is especially important that the license not expire before you can apply the new license. The ASA allows you to stack time-based licenses so that you do not have to worry about the license expiring or about losing time on your licenses because you installed the new one early.

When you install an identical time-based license as one already installed, then the licenses are combined, and the duration equals the combined duration.

For example:

1. You install a week Botnet Traffic Filter license, and use the license for 25 weeks (27 weeks remain).

2. You then purchase another week Botnet Traffic Filter license. When you install the second license, the licenses combine to have a duration of 79 weeks (52 weeks plus 27 weeks).

Similarly:

1. You install an 8-week session AnyConnect Premium license, and use it for 2 weeks (6 weeks remain).

2. You then install another 8-week session license, and the licenses combine to be sessions for 14 weeks (8 weeks plus 6 weeks).

If the licenses are not identical (for example, a session AnyConnect Premium license vs. a session license), then the licenses are not combined. Because only one time-based license per feature can be active, only one of the licenses can be active.

Although non-identical licenses do not combine, when the current license expires, the ASA automatically activates an installed license of the same feature if available.

Time-Based License Expiration

When the current license for a feature expires, the ASA automatically activates an installed license of the same feature if available. If there are no other time-based licenses available for the feature, then the permanent license is used.

If you have more than one additional time-based license installed for a feature, then the ASA uses the first license it finds; which license is used is not user-configurable and depends on internal operations. If you prefer to use a different time-based license than the one the ASA activated, then you must manually activate the license you prefer.

For example, you have a time-based session AnyConnect Premium license (active), a time-based session AnyConnect Premium license (inactive), and a permanent session AnyConnect Premium license. While the session license expires, the ASA activates the session license. After the session license expires, the ASA uses the session permanent license.

License Notes

The following sections include additional information about licenses.

AnyConnect Plus and Apex Licenses

The AnyConnect Plus or Apex license is a multi-use license that you can apply to multiple ASAs, all of which share a user pool as specified by the license. See cromwellpsi.com, and assign the PAK separately to each ASA. When you apply the resulting activation key to an ASA, it toggles on the VPN features to the maximum allowed, but the actual number of unique users across all ASAs sharing the license should not exceed the license limit. For more information, see:

Note	The AnyConnect Apex license is required for multiple context mode. Moreover, in multiple context mode, this license must be applied to each unit in a failover pair; the license is not aggregated.

Other VPN License

Other VPN sessions include the following VPN types:

• IPsec remote access VPN using IKEv1

• IPsec site-to-site VPN using IKEv1

• IPsec site-to-site VPN using IKEv2

This license is included in the Base license.

Total VPN Sessions Combined, All Types

• Although the maximum VPN sessions add up to more than the maximum VPN AnyConnect and Other VPN sessions, the combined sessions should not exceed the VPN session limit. If you exceed the maximum VPN sessions, you can overload the ASA, so be sure to size your network appropriately.

• If you start a clientless SSL VPN session and then start an AnyConnect client session from the portal, 1 session is used in total. However, if you start the AnyConnect client first (from a standalone client, for example) and then log into the clientless SSL VPN portal, then 2 sessions are used.

VPN Load Balancing

VPN load balancing requires a Strong Encryption (3DES/AES) License.

Legacy VPN Licenses

Refer to the Supplemental end User License Agreement for AnyConnect for all relevant information on licensing.

Note	The AnyConnect Apex license is required for multiple context mode; you cannot use the default or legacy license.

Encryption License

The DES license cannot be disabled. If you have the 3DES license installed, DES is still available. To prevent the use of DES when you want to only use strong encryption, be sure to configure any relevant commands to use only strong encryption.

Carrier License

The Carrier license enables the following inspection features:

Total TLS Proxy Sessions

Each TLS proxy session for Encrypted Voice Inspection is counted against the TLS license limit.

Other applications that use TLS proxy sessions do not count toward the TLS limit, for example, Mobility Advantage Proxy (which does not require a license).

Some applications might use multiple sessions for a connection. For example, if you configure a phone with a primary and backup Cisco Unified Communications Manager, there are 2 TLS proxy connections.

You independently set the TLS proxy limit using the tls-proxy maximum-sessions command or in ASDM, using the Configuration > Firewall > Unified Communications > TLS Proxy pane. To view the limits of your model, enter the tls-proxy maximum-sessions ? command. When you apply a TLS proxy license that is higher than the default TLS proxy limit, the ASA automatically sets the TLS proxy limit to match the license. The TLS proxy limit takes precedence over the license limit; if you set the TLS proxy limit to be less than the license, then you cannot use all of the sessions in your license.

Note

For license part numbers ending in “K8” (for example, licenses under users), TLS proxy sessions are limited to For license part numbers ending in “K9” (for example, licenses users or larger), the TLS proxy limit depends on the configuration, up to the model limit. K8 and K9 refer to whether the license is restricted for export: K8 is unrestricted, and K9 is restricted. If you clear the configuration (using the clear configure all command, for example), then the TLS proxy limit is set to the default for your model; if this default is lower than the license limit, then you see an error message to use the tls-proxy maximum-sessions command to raise the limit again (in ASDM, use the TLS Proxy pane). If you use failover and enter the write standby command or in ASDM, use File > Save Running Configuration to Standby Unit on the primary unit to force a configuration synchronization, the clear configure all command is generated on the secondary unit automatically, so you may see the warning message on the secondary unit. Because the configuration synchronization restores the TLS proxy limit set on the primary unit, you can ignore the warning.

You might also use SRTP encryption sessions for your connections:

• For K8 licenses, SRTP sessions are limited to

• For K9 licenses, there is no limit.

Note	Only calls that require encryption/decryption for media are counted toward the SRTP limit; if passthrough is set for the call, even if both legs are SRTP, they do not count toward the limit.

VLANs, Maximum

For an interface to count against the VLAN limit, you must assign a VLAN to it. For example:

Botnet Traffic Filter License

Requires a Strong Encryption (3DES/AES) License to download the dynamic database.

IPS Module License

The IPS module license lets you run the IPS software module on the ASA. You also need the IPS signature subscription on the IPS side.

See the following guidelines:

• To buy the IPS signature subscription you need to have the ASA with IPS pre-installed (the part number must include “IPS”, for example ASAIPS-K9); you cannot buy the IPS signature subscription for a non-IPS part number ASA.

• For failover, you need the IPS signature subscription on both units; this subscription is not shared in failover, because it is not an ASA license.

• For failover, the IPS signature subscription requires a unique IPS module license per unit. Like other ASA licenses, the IPS module license is technically shared in the failover cluster license. However, because of the IPS signature subscription requirements, you must buy a separate IPS module license for each unit in failover.

Shared AnyConnect Premium Licenses (AnyConnect 3 and Earlier)

Note	The shared license feature on the ASA is not supported with AnyConnect 4 and later licensing. AnyConnect licenses are shared and no longer require a shared server or participant license.

A shared license lets you purchase a large number of AnyConnect Premium sessions and share the sessions as needed among a group of ASAs by configuring one of the ASAs as a shared licensing server, and the rest as shared licensing participants.

A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device -- such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing devices, to generate visual feedback for a player. This is then shown on a two- or three-dimensional videodisplay device such as a TV set, monitor, touchscreen, or virtual reality headset. Video games are augmented with audio feedback from speakers or headphones, and optionally with other types of feedback systems including haptic technology.

Video games are defined based on their platform, which include arcade games, console games, and PC games. More recently, the industry has expanded onto mobile gaming through smartphones and tablet computers, virtual and augmented reality systems, and remote cloud gaming. Video games are classified into a wide range of genres based on their type of gameplay and purpose.

The first video games were simple extensions of electronic games using video-like output from large room-size computers in the s and s, while the first video games available to consumers appeared in through the release of the arcade game Computer Space, followed the next year by Pong, and with the first home console the Magnavox Odyssey in Today, video game development requires numerous skills to bring a game to market, including developers, publishers, distributors, retailers, console and other third-party manufacturers, and other roles.

Since the s, the commercial importance of the video game industry has been increasing. The emerging Asian markets and mobile games on smartphones in particular are driving the growth of the industry. As of , video games generated sales of US$ billion annually worldwide,^[1] and were the third-largest segment in the U.S. entertainment market, behind broadcast and cable TV.

Origins

Early games used interactive electronic devices with various display formats. The earliest example is from —a "Cathode ray tube Amusement Device" was filed for a patent on 25 January , by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann, and issued on 14 December , as U.S. Patent ^[2] Inspired by radar display technology, it consisted of an analog device that allowed a user to control a vector-drawn dot on the screen to simulate a missile being fired at targets, which were drawings fixed to the screen.^[3] Other early examples include: Christopher Strachey's Draughts game, the Nimrod computer at the Festival of Britain; OXO a tic-tac-toe Computer game by Alexander S. Douglas for the EDSAC in ; Tennis for Two, an electronic interactive game engineered by William Higinbotham in ; Spacewar!, written by MIT students Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanen's on a DEC PDP-1 computer in ; and the hit ping pong-style Pong, a game by Atari. Each game used different means of display: NIMROD used a panel of lights to play the game of Nim,^[4] OXO used a graphical display to play tic-tac-toe^[5]Tennis for Two used an oscilloscope to display a side view of a tennis court,^[3] and Spacewar! used the DEC PDP-1's vector display to have two spaceships battle each other.^[6]

These preliminary inventions paved the way for the origins of video games today. Ralph H. Baer, while working at Sanders Associates in , came up with the idea of using a control system to play a rudimentary game of table tennis on a television screen. With Sanders' blessing, Baer build out the prototype "Brown Box". Sanders patented Baer's inventions and licensed them to Magnavox, who commercialized it as the first home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey, released in ^[3][7] Separately, Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, inspired by seeing Spacewar! running at Stanford University, came up with the idea of creating a similar version running in a smaller cabinet using a less expensive computer with a coin-operated feature. This was released as Computer Space, the first arcade game, in ^[8] Bushnell and Dabney went on to form Atari, Inc., and with Allan Alcorn, created their second arcade game Pong in , which was directly inspired by the table tennis game on the Odyssey. Sanders and Magnavox sued Atari on patent infringement over Baer's patents, but Atari settled out of court, paying for perpetual rights to the patents. Following their agreement, Atari went ahead with plans to make a home version of Pong, while was released by Christmas ^[3] The success of the Odyssey and Pong, both as an arcade game and home machine, launched the video game industry.^[9][10] Both Baer and Bushnell have been given the title the "Father of Video Games" for their contributions.^[11][12]

Terminology

The term "video game" was developed to distinguish this class of electronic games that were played to some type of video display rather than those that used the output of a teletype printer or similar device.^[13]

The first appearance of the term emerged around The Oxford English Dictionary cited a November 10, BusinessWeek article as the first printed use of the term.^[14] While Bushnell believed the term came out from a vending magazine review of Computer Space in ,^[15] a review of the major vending magazines Vending Times and Cashbox showed that the term came much earlier, appearing first around March in these magazines in mass usage including by the arcade game manufacturers. As analyzed by video game historian Keith Smith, the sudden appearance suggested that the term had been suggested and readily adopted by those involved. This appeared to trace to Ed Adlum, who ran Cashbox's coin-operated section until and then later founded RePlay Magazine, covering the coin-op amusement field, in In a September issue of RePlay, Adlum is credited with first naming these games as "video games": "RePlay's Eddie Adlum worked at 'Cash Box' when 'TV games' first came out. The personalities in those days were Bushnell, his sales manager Pat Karns and a handful of other 'TV game' manufacturers like Henry Leyser and the McEwan brothers. It seemed awkward to call their products 'TV games', so borrowing a word from 'Billboard's description of movie jukeboxes, Adlum started to refer to this new breed of amusement machine as 'video games.' The phrase stuck."^[16] In Japan, where consoles like the Odyssey were first imported and then made within the country by the large television manufacturers such as Toshiba and Sharp Corporation, these were also known as "TV games", or TV geemu or terebi geemu.^[17]

Video game terms

As every video game is different, the experience of playing every video game is impossible to summarize in a singular statement, but many common elements exist. Most games will launch into a title screen and give the player a chance to review options such as the number of players before starting a game. Most games are divided into levels which the player must work their avatar through, scoring points, collecting power-ups to boost the avatar's innate attributes, all while either using special attacks to defeat enemies or moves to avoid them. Taking damage will deplete their avatar's health, and if that falls to zero or if the avatar otherwise falls into an impossible-to-escape location, the player will lose one of their lifes. Should they lose all their lives without gaining an extra life or "1-UP", then the player will reach the "game over" screen. Many levels as well as the game's finale end with a type of boss character the player must defeat to continue on. In some games, intermediate points between levels will offer save points where the player can create a saved game on storage media to restart the game should they lose all their lives or need to stop the game and restart at a later time. These also may be in the form of a passage that can be written down and reentered at the title screen.

As games are software products, they may still ship with software bugs. These can manifest as glitches within the game which may be exploited by the player; this is often the foundation of speedrunning a video game. Other times, these bugs, along with cheat codes, Easter eggs, and other hidden secrets that were intentionally added to the game can also be exploited.^{[18][19][20][21]} On some consoles, cheat cartridges allow players to execute these cheat codes, while user-developed trainers allow similar bypassing for computer software games, both which can make the game easier, give the player additional power-ups, or change the appearance of the game.^[19]

Components of a video game

Platform

Video games require a platform, a specific combination of electronic components or computer hardware and associated software, to operate.^[22] The term system is also commonly used. Games are typically designed to be played on one or a limited number of platforms, and exclusivity to a platform is used as a competitive edge in the video game market.^[23] The list below is not exhaustive and excludes other electronic devices capable of playing video games such as PDAs and graphing calculators.

Computer game

Most computer games are PC games, referring to those that involve a player interacting with a personal computer (PC) connected to a video monitor.^[24] Personal computers are not dedicated game platforms, so there may be differences running the same game on different hardware. Also, the openness allows some features to developers like reduced software cost,^[25] increased flexibility, increased innovation, emulation, creation of modifications or mods, open hosting for online gaming (in which a person plays a video game with people who are in a different household) and others. A gaming computer is a PC or laptop intended specifically for gaming typically using high-performance, high-cost components. In additional to personal computer gaming, there also exist games that work on mainframe computers and other similarly shared systems, with users logging in remotely to use the computer.

Home console

A console game is played on a home console, a specialized electronic device that connects to a common television set or composite video monitor, unlike PCs, which can run all sorts of computer programs, a console is a dedicated video game platform manufactured by a specific company. Usually consoles only run games developed for it, or games from other platform made by the same company, but never games developed by its direct competitor, even if the same game is available on different platforms. It often comes with a specific game controller. Major console platforms include Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo.

Handheld console

A handheld gaming device is a small, self-contained electronic device that is portable and can be held in a user's hands. It features the console, a small screen, speakers and buttons, joystick or other game controllers in a single unit. Like consoles, handhelds are dedicated platforms, and share almost the same characteristics. Handheld hardware usually is less powerful than PC or console hardware. Some handheld games from the late s and early s could only play one game. In the s and s, a number of handheld games used cartridges, which enabled them to be used to play many different games.

A police-themed arcade game in which players use a light gun

Arcade game

An arcade game generally refers to a game played on an even more specialized type of electronic device that is typically designed to play only one game and is encased in a special, large coin-operated cabinet which has one built-in console, controllers (joystick, buttons, etc.), a CRT screen, and audio amplifier and speakers. Arcade games often have brightly painted logos and images relating to the theme of the game. While most arcade games are housed in a vertical cabinet, which the user typically stands in front of to play, some arcade games use a tabletop approach, in which the display screen is housed in a table-style cabinet with a see-through table top. With table-top games, the users typically sit to play. In the s and s, some arcade games offered players a choice of multiple games. In the s, video arcades were businesses in which game players could use a number of arcade video games. In the s, there are far fewer video arcades, but some movie theaters and family entertainment centers still have them.

Browser game

A browser game takes advantages of standardizations of technologies for the functionality of web browsers across multiple devices providing a cross-platform environment. These games may be identified based on the website that they appear, such as with Miniclip games. Others are named based on the programming platform used to develop them, such as Java and Flash games.

Mobile game

With the introduction of smartphones and tablet computers standardized on the iOS and Android operating systems, mobile gaming has become a significant platform. These games may utilize unique features of mobile devices that are not necessary present on other platforms, such as accelerometers, global positing information and camera devices to support augmented reality gameplay.

Cloud gaming

Cloud gaming requires a minimal hardware device, such as a basic computer, console, laptop, mobile phone or even a dedicated hardware device connected to a display with good Internet connectivity that connects to hardware systems by the cloud gaming provider. The game is computed and rendered on the remote hardware, using a number of predictive methods to reduce the network latency between player input and output on their display device.

Virtual reality

Virtual reality (VR) games generally require players to use a special head-mounted unit that provides stereoscopic screens and motion tracking to immerse a player within virtual environment that responds to their head movements. Some VR systems include control units for the player's hands as to provide a direct way to interact with the virtual world. VR systems generally require a separate computer, console, or other processing device that couples with the head-mounted unit.

Emulation

An emulator enables games from a console or otherwise different system to be run in a type of virtual machine on a modern system, simulating the hardware of the original and allows old games to be played. While emulators themselves have been found to be legal in United States case law, the act of obtaining the game software that one does not already own may violate copyrights. However, there are some official releases of emulated software from game manufacturers, such as Nintendo with its Virtual Console or Nintendo Switch Online offerings.

Game media

Early arcade games, home consoles, and handheld games were dedicated hardware units with the game's logic built into the electronic componentry of the hardware. Since then, most video game platforms have means to use multiple games distributed on different types of media or formats. Physical formats include ROM cartridges, magnetic storage including magnetic tape data storage and floppy discs, optical media formats including CD-ROM and DVDs, and flash memory cards. Furthermore digital distribution over the Internet or other communication methods as well as cloud gaming alleviate the need for any physical media. In some cases, the media serves as the direct read-only memory for the game, or it may be the form of installation media that is used to write the main assets to the player's platform's local storage for faster loading periods and later updates.

Games can be extended with new content and software patches through either expansion packs which are typically available as physical media, or as downloadable content nominally available via digital distribution. These can be offered freely or can be used to monetize a game following its initial release. Several games offer players the ability to create user-generated content to share with others to play. Other games, mostly those on personal computers, can be extended with user-created modifications or mods that alter or add onto the game; these often are unofficial and were developed by players from reverse engineering of the game, but other games provide official support for modding the game.^[26]

Controller

A North American Super NES game controller from the early s

Video game can use several types of input devices to translate human actions to a game. Most common are the use of game controllers like gamepads and joysticks for most consoles. Handheld consoles will have built in buttons and directional pads, similarly arcade games will have controls built into the console unit itself. Many games on personal computers can take advantage of keyboard and mouse controls. Other game controllers are commonly used for specific games like racing wheels, light guns or dance pads. Digital cameras can also be used as game controllers capturing movements of the body of the player.

As technology continues to advance, more can be added onto the controller to give the player a more immersive experience when playing different games. There are some controllers that have presets so that the buttons are mapped a certain way to make playing certain games easier. Along with the presets, a player can sometimes custom map the buttons to better accommodate their play style. On keyboard and mouse, different actions in the game are already preset to keys on the keyboard. Most games allow the player to change that so that the actions are mapped to different keys that are more to their liking. The companies that design the controllers are trying to make the controller visually appealing and also feel comfortable in the hands of the consumer.

An example of a technology that was incorporated into the controller was the touchscreen. It allows the player to be able to interact with the game differently than before. The person could move around in menus easier and they are also able to interact with different objects in the game. They can pick up some objects, equip others, or even just move the objects out of the player's path. Another example is motion sensor where a person's movement is able to be captured and put into a game. Some motion sensor games are based on where the controller is. The reason for that is because there is a signal that is sent from the controller to the console or computer so that the actions being done can create certain movements in the game. Other type of motion sensor games are webcam style where the player moves around in front of it, and the actions are repeated by a game character.

Display and output

By definition, all video games are intended to output graphics to an external video display, such as cathode-ray tube televisions, newer liquid-crystal display (LCD) televisions and built-in screens, projectors or computer monitors, depending on the type of platform the game is played on. Features such as color depth, refresh rate, frame rate, and screen resolution are a combination of the limitations of the game platform and display device and the program efficiency of the game itself. The game's output can range from fixed displays using LED or LCD elements, text-based games, two-dimensional and three-dimensional graphics, and augmented reality displays.

The game's graphics are often accompanied by sound produced by internal speakers on the game platform or external speakers attached to the platform, as directed by the game's programming. This often will include sound effects tied to the player's actions to provide audio feedback, as well as background music for the game.

Some platforms support additional feedback mechanics to the player that a game can take advantage of. This is most commonly haptic technology built into the game controller, such as causing the controller to shake in the player's hands to simulate a shaking earthquake occurring in game.

Means of classification

Video games are frequently classified by a number of factors related to how one plays them.

Genres

A video game, like most other forms of media, may be categorized into genres. However, unlike film or television which use visual or narrative elements, video games are generally categorized into genres based on their gameplay interaction, since this is the primary means which one interacts with a video game.^[27][28][29] The narrative setting does not impact gameplay; a shooter game is still a shooter game, regardless of whether it takes place in a fantasy world or in outer space.^[30][31]

Genre names are normally self-describing in terms of the type of gameplay, such as action game, role playing game, or shoot 'em up, though some genres have derivations from influential works that have defined that genre, such as roguelikes from Rogue,^[32]Grand Theft Auto clones from Grand Theft Auto III,^[33] and battle royale game from the film Battle Royale.^[34] The names may shift over time as players, developers and the media come up with new terms; for example, first-person shooters were originally called "Doom clones" based on the game.^[35] A hierarchy of game genres exist, with top-level genres like "shooter game" and "action game" that broadly capture the game's main gameplay style, and several subgenres of specific implementation, such as within the shooter game first-person shooter and third-person shooter. Some cross-genre types also exist that fall until multiple top-level genres such as action-adventure game.

Mode

A video game's mode describes how many players can use the game at the same type. This is primarily distinguished by single-player video games and multiplayer video games. Within the latter category, multiplayer games can be played in a variety of ways, including locally at the same device, on separate devices connected through a local network such as LAN parties, or online via separate Internet connections. Most multiplayer games are based on competitive gameplay, but many offer cooperative and team-based options as well as asymmetric gameplay. Online games use server structures that can also enable massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) to support hundreds of players at the same time.

Intent

Most video games are created for entertainment purposes, but there are a small subset of games developed for additional purposes beyond entertainment. These include:

Casual games

Casual games are designed for easy of accessibility, simple to understand gameplay and quick to grasp rule sets, and aimed at mass market audience, as opposed to a hardcore game. They frequently support the ability to jump in and out of play on demand, such during commuting or lunch breaks. Numerous browser and mobile games fall into the casual game area, and casual games often are from genres with low intensity game elements such as match three, hidden object, time management, and puzzle games.^[36] Causal games frequently use social-network game mechanics, where players can enlist the help of friends on their social media networks for extra turns or moves each day.^[37] More recent are hyper-casual games which use even more simplistic rules for shore but infinitely replayable games.

Educational games

Education software has been used in homes and classrooms to help teach children and students, and video games have been similarly adapted for these reasons, all designed to provide a form of interactivity and entertainment tied to game design elements. There are a variety of differences in their designs and how they educate the user. These are broadly split between edutainment games that tend to focus on the entertainment value and rote learning but are unlikely to engage in critical thinking, and educational video games that are geared towards problem solving through motivation and positive reinforcement while downplaying the entertainment value.^[38] Further, games not initially developed for educational purposes have found their way into the classroom after release, often those that feature open worlds or virtual sandboxes, such as Minecraft.^[39]

Serious games

Further extending from educational games, serious games are those where the entertainment factor may be augmented, overshadowed, or even eliminated by other purposes for the game. Game design is used to reinforce the non-entertainment purpose of the game, such as using video game technology for the game's interactive world, or gamification for reinforcement training. Educational games are a form of serious games, but other types of serious games include fitness games that incorporate significant physical exercise to help keep the player fit, flight simulators that simulate piloting commercial and military aircraft, advergames that are built around the advertising of a product, and newsgames aimed at conveying a specific advocacy message.^[40]

Content ratings

A typical ESRB rating label, listing the rating and specific content descriptors for Rabbids Go Home

Video games can be subject to national and international content rating requirements. Like with film content ratings, video game ratings typing identify the target age group that the national or regional ratings board believes is appropriate for the player, ranging from all-ages, to a teenager-or-older, to mature, to the infrequently seen adults-only titles. Most content review is based on the level of violence, both in the type of violence and how graphic it may be represented, and sexual content, but other themes such as drug and alcohol use and gambling that can influence children may also be identified. A primary identifier based on a minimum age is used by nearly all systems, along with additional descriptors to identify specific content that players and parents should be aware of.

The regulations vary from country to country but generally are voluntary systems upheld by vendor practices, with penalty and fines issued by the ratings body on the video game publisher for misuse of the ratings. Among the major content rating systems include:

• Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) that oversees games released in the United States. ESRB ratings are voluntary and rated along a E (Everyone), E10+ (Everyone 10 and older), T (Teen), M (Mature), and AO (Adults Only). Attempts to mandate video games ratings in the U.S. subsequently led to the landmark Supreme Court case, Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association in which ruled video games were a protected form of art, a key victory for the video game industry.^[41]
• Pan European Game Information (PEGI) covering the United Kingdom, most of the European Union and other European countries, replacing previous national-based systems. The PEGI system uses content rated based on minimum recommended ages, which include 3+, 8+, 12+, 16+, and 18+.
• Australian Classification Board (ACB) oversees the ratings of games and other works in Australia, using ratings of G (General), PG (Parental Guidance), M (Mature), MA15+ (Mature Accompanied), R18+ (Restricted), and X (Restricted for pornographic material). ACB can also deny to give a rating to game (RC - Refused Classification). The ACB's ratings are enforceable by law, and importantly, games cannot be imported or purchased digitally in Australia if they have failed to gain a rating or were given the RC rating, leading to a number of notable banned games.
• Computer Entertainment Rating Organization (CERO) rates games for Japan. Their ratings include A (all ages), B (12 and older), C (15 and over), D (17 and over), and Z (18 and over).

Additionally, the major content system provides have worked to create the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC), a means to streamline and align the content ratings system between different region, so that a publisher would only need to complete the content ratings review for one provider, and use the IARC transition to affirm the content rating for all other regions.

Certain nations have even more restrictive rules related to political or ideological content. Notably, China's video game segment is mostly isolated from the rest of the world due to the government's censorship, and all games published there must adhere to strict government review, disallowing content such as smearing the image of the Chinese Communist Party. Foreign games published in China often require modification by developers and publishers to meet these requirements.^[42]

Development

Developers use various tools to create video games. Here an editor is fine-tuning the virtual camera system.

Video game development and authorship, much like any other form of entertainment, is frequently a cross-disciplinary field. Video game developers, as employees within this industry are commonly referred, primarily include programmers and graphic designers. Over the years this has expanded to include almost every type of skill that one might see prevalent in the creation of any movie or television program, including sound designers, musicians, and other technicians; as well as skills that are specific to video games, such as the game designer. All of these are managed by producers.

In the early days of the industry, it was more common for a single person to manage all of the roles needed to create a video game. As platforms have become more complex and powerful in the type of material they can present, larger teams have been needed to generate all of the art, programming, cinematography, and more. This is not to say that the age of the "one-man shop" is gone, as this is still sometimes found in the casual gaming and handheld markets,^[43] where smaller games are prevalent due to technical limitations such as limited RAM or lack of dedicated 3D graphics rendering capabilities on the target platform (e.g., some PDAs).^[44]

Video games are programmed like any other piece of computer software. Early games required programming all parts of a game. Today, game developers have a number of commercial and open source tools available for use to make games, often which are across multiple platforms to support portability, or may still opt to create their own for more specialized features and direct control of the game. Today, many games are built around a game engine that handles the bulk of the game's logic, gameplay, and rendering. These engines can be augmented with specialized engines for specific features, such as a physics engine that simulates the physics of objects in real-time. A variety of middleware exists to help developers to access other features, such as for playback of videos within games, network-oriented code for games that communicate via online services, matchmaking for online games, and similar features. These features can be used from a devlopers' programming language of choice, or they may opt to also use game development kits that minimize the amount of direct programming they have to do but can also limit the amount of customization they can add into a game. Like all software, video games usually undergo quality testing before release to assure there are no bugs or glitches in the product, though frequently developers will release patches and updates.

With the growth of the size of development teams in the industry, the problem of cost has increased. Development studios need to be able to pay their staff a competitive wage in order to attract and retain the best talent, while publishers are constantly looking to keep costs down in order to maintain profitability on their investment. Typically, a video game console development team can range in sizes of anywhere from 5 to 50 people, with some teams exceeding In May , one game project was reported to have a development staff of ^[45] The growth of team size combined with greater pressure to get completed projects into the market to begin recouping production costs has led to a greater occurrence of missed deadlines, rushed games and the release of unfinished products.^[46]

While amateur and hobbyist game programming had existing since the late s with the introduction of home computers, a newer trend since the mids is indie game development. Indie games are made by small teams outside any direct publisher control, their games being smaller in scope than those from the larger "AAA" game studios, and are often experiment in gameplay and art style. Indie game development are aided by larger availability of digital distribution, including the newer mobile gaming marker, and readily-available and low-cost development tools for these platforms.^[47]

Industry

E3 in Los Angeles is one of the typical trade show events of the video game industry.

Video games have a large network effect that draw on many different sectors that tie into the larger video game industry. While video game developers are a significant portion of the industry, other key participants in the market include:^[48]

• Publishers: Companies generally that oversee bringing the game from the developer to market. This often includes performing the marketing, public relations, and advertising of the game. Publishers frequently pay the developers ahead of time to make their games and will be involved in critical decisions about the direction of the game's progress, and then pay the developers additional royalties or bonuses based on sales performances. Other smaller, boutique publishers may simply offer to perform the publishing of a game for a small fee and a portion of the sales, and otherwise leave the developer with the creative freedom to proceed. A range of other publisher-developer relationships exist between these points.
• Distributors: Publishers often are able to produce their own game media and take the role of distributor, but there are also third-party distributors that can mass produce game media and distribute to retailers. Digital storefronts like Steam and the iOS App Store also serve as distributors and retailers in the digital space.
• Retailers: Physical storefronts, which include large online retailers, department and electronic stores, and specialty video game stores, sell games, consoles, and other accessories to consumers. This has also including a trade-in market in certain regions, allowing players to turn in used games for partial refunds or credit towards other games.
• Hardware manufacturers: The video game console manufacturers typically require a license to develop for their platform and may control the production of some games, such as Nintendo does with the use of game cartridges for its systems. In exchange, the manufacturers may help promote titles for their system and may seek console exclusivity for certain games. For games on personal computers, a number of manufacturers are devoted to high-performance "gaming computer" hardware, particularly in the graphics card area. A range of third-party manufacturers also exist to provide equipment and gear for the console hardware makers, such as additional controllers for console or carrying cases and gear for handheld devices.
• Journalism: While journalism around video games used to be primarily print-based, and focused more on post-release reviews and gameplay strategy, the Internet has brought a more proactive press that use web journalism, covering games in the months prior to release as well as beyond, helping to build excitement for games ahead of release.
• Influencers: With the rising importance of social media, video game companies have found that the opinions of influencers using streaming media to play through their games has had a significant impact on game sales, and have turned to use influencers alongside traditional journalism as a means to build up attention to their game before release.
• Esports: Esports is a major function of several multiplayer games with numerous professional leagues established since the s, with large viewership numbers, particularly out of southeast Asia since the s.
• Trade and advocacy groups: Trade groups like the Entertainment Software Association were established to provide a common voice for the industry in response to governmental and other advocacy concerns. They frequently set up the major trade events and conventions for the industry such as E3.
• Gamers: The players and consumers of video games, broadly. While their representation in the industry is primarily seen through game sales, many companies follow gamers' comments on social media or on user reviews and engage with them to work to improve their products in addition to other feedback from other parts of the industry.

Game sales

A retail display with a large selection of games for platforms popular in the early s

According to the market research firm SuperData, as of May , the global games market was worth US$ billion. By region, North America accounted for $ billion, Asia for $ billion, Europe for $ billion and South America for $ billion. By market segment, mobile games were worth $ billion, retail games billion, free-to-playMMOs billion, social games $ billion, PC DLC billion, and other categories $3 billion or less each.^[49][50]