The DeanBeat: Worldwide game revenues weren’t too shabby in 2015

China may have hit the pause button, and the stock markets around the world tanked. Game investments and game industry acquisitions fell sharply in 2015, even as venture capital got a huge boost thanks to the creation of so many “unicorns,” or startups with a billion-dollar-plus valuation. But as far as game revenues go, 2015 was a pretty good year for the overall industry. The numbers aren’t completely in yet, but I suspect that most things in gaming expanded, rather than contracted, during the past year.

I was lucky to travel the world in 2015. I saw thriving game industries not only in places such as San Francisco, Seattle, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, but also in places such as Shanghai, London, Paris, Tel Aviv, Berlin, Marseilles, and Montreal. These strong regional game economies showed me in the most tangible way that the craft of making games has spread worldwide, even to places like Siberia.