The video game industry contributes more than $90 billion to the world economy, that’s miles ahead of what most film industries accomplish –even going toe to toe with the likes of Hollywood.
Here’s a little story to help you get an idea of its far reaches. When the critically acclaimed videogame Grand Theft Auto 5 was released in 2013, it crossed the $1 billion mark within a span of 24 hours. And back then it was available on only two consoles, the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Over the years it got ported over to the PS4, Xbox One and PC, so you can imagine how massive its cumulative profit must have been. Videogames are like the low hanging fruit. If you’re able to market your product right, you can capture millions of dollars in revenue. But as is the case with any burgeoning industry, you need to have the proper talent to go about creating the kind of stuff that gets people hooked in the first place.
That kind of talent is not easy to acquire, especially, when a lot of creativity is required from these individuals. Any job that results in the creation of content geared towards satisfying your audience requires in depth talent management – the kind that isn’t just done on spur of the moment by inexperienced executives. More than just talent, a knack of recognizing talent is needed for managing recruits. This is something that belongs under the domain of someone who holds years of HR experience, or at least a 4 year degree specializing in human resources.
As the videogame industry continues to skyrocket, the roles of the HR staff has become more complicated. It has been observed that companies producing videogames have the highest cultural, racial and gender diversity compared to other industries. You could argue that they are a melting pot for different nationalities and cultures to intermingle and create thought provoking, innovative products.
No wonder the world just can’t get enough of Assassin’s Creed and GTA, they’re a product of diversity!
Ideas come from all over the world, resulting in the kind of product that inspires us and gets us hooked. Videogames released in the year 2016 had nailed the issue of diversity right on the head, with major titles such as Mafia III, Mirror’s Edge 2 and Watchdogs 2 featuring black male leads and female leads. The world is moving towards a safe haven where it doesn’t really matter what your heritage is – what matters is the person inside you.
The massive cultural diversity however does tend to brew the cauldron of controversy every now and then, and some people just end up hating each other over the color of their skin. A common problem that needs to be handled by experienced professionals – who know the proper procedure of tackling this issue.
Having a robust human resources department or even outsourcing one if you cannot afford it yet will ensure that your videogame company never encounters such damaging problems. And any possible conflicts rooted in racism are sorted out before they escalate into full scale brawls.
