The four faces of creative industries: visualising the game industry ecosystem in Helsinki and Tokyo

Abstract

Research on creative industries has been gaining momentum during the last few decades with contributions coming from diverse fields. This said, there is a paucity of studies to specify how and why companies in the game industry cluster. In this paper, we inquire into how individuals visualise perceptions of their game industry ecosystem in Helsinki, Finland, and Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo is one of the oldest game industry hotspots, whereas Helsinki has entered the picture only during the 21st century. Utilising drawings and their analysis and interpretation as our research method, in this paper we highlight the contested nature of ecosystems as arenas for collaboration and coopetition, shedding light on the diversity of ways individuals conceptualise an ecosystem. Our analysis yields four faces of ecosystems that help in understanding perceptions of clustering in the creative industries.