The document discusses the computer games industry. It notes that the first computer games were launched in the 1960s and by the 1970s there was a established games industry. The games industry now employs over 30,000 people in the UK and involves large development teams and costs of millions to produce games. It provides an example of how Halo: Reach generated $200 million in sales within 24 hours, beating the opening day box office of Avatar. The homework assigns researching a games developer and describing their history and popular games, and listing game development job roles.

1. Unit 13 Understanding the Computer Games Industry Week 1 Introduction to The Media Industry

2. What do you understand by the term the Media? What areas of the Media do you know? List as many areas as you can think of.

3. What Are Media Industries? Name 3 industries that you can work in that could be called ‘Creative Media’?

4. Creative Media Industries!

5. Why Bother? Activity – Look at the person next to you. In pairs, discuss 3 reasons why it is important to understand all media industries

6. Your Media Industry Funding Structure Ethics & Law Development

7. The first games were launched in the 1960s. By the 1970s there was a Games Industry with arcades and home entertainment consoles. Home computing exploded in the 1980s and brought a period of huge expansion. Games became an industry, and moved away from 2 or 3 companies producing software and hardware.Developing game titles now involves large teams of people, and costs millions of pounds.

8. The Games Industry Employs 30 thousand people in the UK!

9. HALO KICKED AVATARS BUTT! Within 24 hours of it launch, Microsoft generated $200 million (£129 million) for launch day sales of Halo: Reach. In doing so, the game managed to beat the opening day box office totals of James Camerons Avatar which only managed to garner $26.7 million on opening day!

10. Homework Choose a Developer. Write a paragraph about the Developer eg. when they started, where they are based (UK office?), what games are they know for? Make a list of job roles and write a sentence about each one.