TRANSGRESSIVE GAMING It could be said the uniquely performative relation between the player and the computer game is itself controversial. Because the user can express agency within a field of choices or roles, it is assumed their participation is an implication of his or her own motivations and values. Taken screen for screen, the content of games themselves are certainly no more controversial than what is available on television or at the cinema. However it is this assumed implication of the players' involvement that leads to games like BMX XXX (where one plays a naked woman riding a bicycle in a competion) being utterly banished from the shores of Australia without classification 2, while explicit film content is available to adults in most video stores.

Although the game artist may not be reprimanded for exploring confrontational or disturbing ideas using games within the contrivance of a gallery context, such censorship models would certainly impact negatively on the distribution of 'Art House', 'Documentary' or 'Propaganda' games should such (potentially saleable) genres ever evolve. In a less direct sense, such agressive regulation of the medium stifles the confidence of the smaller developer interested in both exploring such ideas and developing new audiences.

THE MAJOR PLAYERS NPD Funworld indicates that total dollar sales of video game hardware, software, and accessories reached a record level $10.3 billion in 2002. The figure represents a 10% increase over the 2001 figure of $9.4 billion.

Wall Street investment bank Jefferies & Co. predicts that U.S. sales of video game hardware, software, and accessories will have almost tripled from $8.3 billion in 2000 to $21.4 billion in 2005.

As multinational giants take greater and greater interest in cornering these gigantic markets, companies both big and small become the target of acquisition strategies. Competing multinationals like Microsoft, Lucas Arts, Sony and Infogrames are currently working hard to buy up promising companies, centralising revenue and monopolising the market. Microsoft's recent acquisition of the company Rare is a good example of such competitive rationales.

Schelley Olhava, an analyst for research firm IDC, said the type of family-friendly games Rare creates are exactly what Microsoft needs to broaden the appeal of the Xbox beyond more hardcore gamers.

"They need to get into the mass market," she said. "Rare has a reputation for developing very solid, high-quality franchises, something that's been really lacking for the Xbox...”