Page 4 - Jobs If You Like Video Games

INTRODUCTION:

CONNECTING WITH A

GROWING INDUSTRY

With nowhere to go during the COVID-19 pandemic, teenager
Sophie Keil hunkered down at home with some new friends. She
joined millions of others playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons,
a video game where players create a village on an island and
spend their days catching fi sh, collecting shells, and visiting with
talking animal friends. “Animal Crossing is so simple and nice,”
she says. “It’s a peaceful game.” 1
The opportunity to take people to different worlds where they
can connect and escape is one reason Jeremy Newton loves his
career as a video game software engineer. “As a game developer,
you’re building and sharing something that brings happiness to
someone you may never meet,” says Newton, who works for a
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mobile game company.

A Growing Industry
If you like playing video games, those hours you’ve spent with your
fi ngers on a keyboard or with a controller in your hands can lead
to a career in a growing industry. Video games soared in popular-
ity during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the lockdowns kept people
from gathering and forced them to fi nd entertainment at home.
Many turned to Animal Crossing, Call of Duty, Spider-Man, Mad-
den NFL, Super Mario 3D All-Stars, and other video games for fun
and virtual companionship. Market intelligence fi rm IDC estimates
that consumers around the world spent $179.7 billion on video
games in 2020—20 percent more than in the previous year.
Even before the pandemic hit, the video game industry was
on an upswing. Video game spending in the United States almost

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