Video Game Companies. Abdo Publishing, 2024. $29.95 ea. $179.70 set of 6. 112 p. Grades 6-9.
Bradford Edwards, Sue. Activision Blizzard: Makers of Overwatch and Call of Duty. 978-1-098-29058-0.
Moon, Walt K. Nintendo: Makers of Mario and Zelda. 978-1-098-29062-7.
Mooney, Carla. Electronic Arts: Makers of Madden NFL and The Sims. 978-1-098-29059-7.
Streissguth, Tom. Epic Games: Makers of Fortnite and Gears of War. 978-1-098-29060-3.
—. Sony: Makers of the Playstation. 978-1-098-29063-4.
Wheeler, Jill C. Microsoft: Makers of the Xbox and Minecraft. 978-1-098-29061-0.
In this series, readers will learn about each video game company’s history and innovations. Each book also describes the creation, sale, and impact of the company’s most famous consoles and games. The story of Sony: Makers of the Playstation begins at the end of World War II when founder Masru Ibuka created the Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation, a company that had its breakthrough making transistor radios. About a decade later, the company changed its name to Sony and went on to establish headquarters in other countries like the United States. After creating the Walkman in the 1970s, debuting CD players in the 1980s, and purchasing Columbia Pictures movie studio shortly before the start of the 1990s, Sony decided to focus on video games. At the urging of Ken Kutaragi, an engineer at Sony, the company finally created the Playstation in 1994. The Playstation was so popular, many more interactions followed, each one more technologically sophisticated than the last. Sony continues to dominate the video game world even with competitors Nintendo and Microsoft hot on their heels. Fans of Playstation appreciate the complex narrative storylines and realistic graphics in their best-selling video games Gran Turismo, God of War, Uncharted, and Spiderman. As a result of Covid-19 and social distancing, Sony began selling games that could be downloaded from any location onto different types of technological devices. Sony is moving into the future by creating video games with virtual reality capability. They have already trademarked the names Playstation 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, indicating that this company will be a mainstay in video games for years to come.
THOUGHTS: Vivid pictures, informative timelines, and infographics accompany the text in this series. Back matter includes a glossary, references, websites, source notes, and an index. The series is also aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. This is a good purchase for middle grade libraries, especially those where books about video gaming circulate frequently.
700s The Arts & Video Gaming