Power Play

In Power Play, leading game industry expert George E. Osborn reveals how video games—the world's largest entertainment medium—are being used by autocrats, populists, and violent extremists to influence the real world around us.

Video games are the world's largest entertainment medium: they are played by billions of people, across all age demographics, and they generate hundreds of billions of dollars of revenue every year.

But video games are more than an entertainment product—they are an ecosystem that connects billions of people across the globe. Video games create spaces where people talk, share ideas, and build identities that bleed into our reality. And whilst democracies have underestimated the potential for influence in this space, others have seized the opportunity.

This is why Russia has been funding the development of video games designed to promote their worldview. It's why Saudi Arabia has acquired one of gaming's biggest publishers, EA, to help wash its reputation. It's why Steve Bannon utilised tactics learned from online game communities to propel Donald Trump to the White House. And it's why Charlie Kirk's alleged assassin carved video game references into his bullets.

Supported by the insights of dozens of politicians, academics, and industry experts, this book is a vital guide to understanding this new frontier for political influence. It explores what democracies must do to protect play and harness its immense power before this essential battle for digital influence is lost for good.