Games Industry

The computer and video game industry (formally referred to as interactive entertainment and generally as the games industry) is the economic sector involved with the development, mmarketing and sale of video and computer games. It encompasses dozens of job disciplines and employs thousands of people worldwide.

Once a niche market and considered by some as a curiosity in the mid-1970s, the computer and video game industry took in about USD$7 billion in the US in 2005 (ESA annual report). (Contrary to popular belief, it appears that the video game industry is not "bigger than Hollywood," a notion that may have proliferated due to varying ways of measuring that business.)
The modern computing world owes many modern computing innovations to the game industry. The following computing elements owe their lineage and development to the game industry:
Sound cards: developed for addition of digital-quality sound to games. Later improved for music and audiophiles.
Graphics cards and 3D graphic accelerators: were developed for graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and games. GUIs drove the need for high resolution, games drove 3D acceleration. They also gave one the opportunity to use SLI graphics cards, or two graphics cards in one computer.
CD Rom drives: were developed for mass distribution of media in general, however games use is probably instrumental in driving their ever higher speeds.
Joysticks were developed mainly for playing games.
Unix: developed, in part, so that the programmers could play a space traveling game.
In addition, many of the higher powered personal computers are purchased by gamers who want the fastest equipment to power the latest cutting-edge games. Modern games are some of the most demanding on PC resources, so the latest hardware is often targeted at this sector likely to purchase and make use of the latest features. Thus, the inertia of CPU development is due in part to this industry whose applications demand faster processors than traditional applications.

The game industry employs those experienced in other traditional businesses, but some have experience tailored to the game industry. For example, many recruiters target just game industry professionals. Some of the disciplines specific to the game industry include:

Game programmer
Game designer
Level designer
Game producer
Game artist
Game tester
Most of these professionals are employed by video game developers or video game publishers. However, many hobbys also produce computer games and sell them commercially. There is a common misconception that just because you play a lot of video games you know to design them, which is completely untrue.