Never has an industry evolved as fast as software has. From next to nothing in the
1970s, worldwide revenues now exceed 500 billion dollars and grow at 15% per
year. Video game revenues alone exceed 20 billion dollars and grow at a
staggering 30-40% rate. Price Waterhouse estimates that by 2011, the worldwide
gaming market will be worth almost $50 billion.
In a relatively small sub-sector of that, things take on a somber and serious tone.
In the serious game industry "learning by doing" is the mantra for a variety of
scenarios ranging from medical mass trauma to shipboard navigation. Although
the serious game industry pulls in a paltry few hundred million dollars per year, it
remains the most vaunted. This is purely a function of potential. Corporate
America has underutilized serious games for training, but this is changing. In the
years since early flight simulators caught our attention, serious game developers
have vastly improved the user experience. Improvements in core gaming
technologies help, such as 3D simulation engines, GUIs, artificial intelligence, and
multi-player networking. Whenever a relatively young industry with huge
commercial potential has low barriers to entry and many existing players, there is
cutthroat market competition. Those existing players look for ways to increase their
market share and inevitably consider the intellectual property system as a potential
competitive tool. Royal W. Craig of Ober|Kaler examines the role patents play in serious gaming.
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