Like many industries driven by technological innovation, the video game industry has seen rapid growth and transformation over the past several decades. It is an industry that straddles technical development, artistic creativity and a for-profit commercial objective. Video games can be distinguished from other industries by their high degree of community engagement and interactivity, with gamers engaging both with the game and with each other globally in either select or massively multi-player capacities. Through these multi-player interactions, gamers become both consumers as well as part of the product itself by impacting the broader gaming experience for others — an effect labelled in the research as ‘network effects’. In contrast to other traditional games or sports, video games also operate with a relatively short-life span, often requiring expansion through downloadable content (DLC) or updating to maintain an active customer base. For example, DLCs provide publishers with additional revenue opportunity and, while consumers may ‘demand’ such content, they may create perverse incentives to leave a game’s story unfinished and divide it into multiple DLC releases. At the same time, the creation and maintenance of these games is resource and labour intensive, which creates significant upfront costs and incentives for unfair labour conditions, against an uncertain commercial performance that is reliant on accurately predicting consumer taste.
Given the above non-exhaustive issues that arise in the video game industry, we aim to explore how companies operating within this industry utilise key features of the company law framework and how they navigate the specific corporate governance issues which they may face within their operations. Contributions may examine doctrinal company law, corporate governance, corporate financing and capital structure, corporate M&A, corporate insolvency, or any other surrounding area which can be applied to the gaming industry generally. We also welcome case studies, both jurisdiction and non-jurisdiction specific, which explore broader themes of corporate law theory within the gaming industry.
As the first stage in a broader project, we aim to collate these contributions into a journal edition which primarily focuses on company law in the gaming industry. This will be supported by an initial workshop where drafts of the papers will be presented.
Below is an indicative view of the themes which we would like to explore:
- Corporate Purpose and Gaming.
- Creative Conflict and Profit-Generation in Gaming.
- Corporate Form and Capital Structuring in Gaming.
- The Insolvency of Gaming Companies.
- Free-to-Play Gaming – Consumer Data and Profit Generation.
- Online Gaming Culture and Corporate Responsibility for Player Toxicity.
- M&A in Gaming (eg The Acquisition of Activision-Blizzard).
- Corporate DEI in the Gaming Industry.
Deadline for Abstracts: 25th May 2026 (200-250 words).
Expected Paper Submission: 20th November 2026 (10,000 words including footnotes).
Please email abstracts and any queries to p.gavin@ucl.ac.uk & Claudia.Paduano@glasgow.ac.uk
Philip Gavin is a Lecturer in Corporate and Financial Law, UCL.
Claudia Paduano is a Lecturer in Commercial Law, University of Glasgow.
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