Video games. Play that never runs out.
It is an entire industry.
It exists to relieve The child must play, and cannot be left to do it alone and Fill the hours that work and care do not. That is the whole reason it is here: nothing enters this map without a human problem behind it.
It could not exist without Smartphones and internet, Semiconductor manufacturing and Cloud computing and data centres. These are the quiet preconditions — remove any one and the solution stops working.
Solving that problem created new ones: Screens hold attention better than parents can. Follow those and you find the next generation of products built on top of this one.
8 organisations in this map sell it, 6 of them publicly listed.
Its neighbourhood
Everything this entry connects to directly. Click any point to follow it.
The line back to a human being
2 hops from a person at a phase of life. The further a thing sits from the person, the more abstract it looks — and the more it tends to be mistaken for something that came from nowhere.
- SolutionVideo games
- FrictionThe child must play, and cannot be left to do it alone
- Life phaseChildhood
- Rooted inBelonging
- Rooted inScarce time
Relieves
Created these new problems
Second-order frictions. This is where most of the modern economy actually lives.
Requires
Who sells it
| Organisation | Value | Type | Products |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft | $3.5T | public · MSFT | LinkedIn, Teams, Xbox |
| Tencent | $600B | public · 448 | WeChat, games, WeChat Pay |
| AppLovin | $200B | public · APP | mobile ad engine |
| Nintendo | $90B | public · 7974 | Switch 2, Mario, Pokémon (partial) |
| Roblox | $80B | public · RBLX | Roblox platform, parental controls |
| Electronic Arts | $55B | private | EA Sports FC, Madden, The Sims |
| Take-Two Interactive | $45B | public · TTWO | Grand Theft Auto, NBA 2K |
| Public Investment Fund (Saudi Arabia) | government | sovereign wealth fund; stakes in EA, Lucid, LIV Golf |