On Tuesday night, the gaming world assembled for the BaftaAn award given at the British Academy Film Awards ceremony. video game awards. One game stormed home with five trophies, including best game. This was Astro Bot, a PlayStation 5 platform game starring a cute robot.

It came as little surprise. Astro Bot has been a critical and commercial smash. Gaming Bible calls it "one of the greatest games of all time". It has scooped up 195 Game of the Year nominations and awards.¹

Astro Bot has been praised for its joyful tone and strong attention to detail. It uses the PlayStation's vibrating controller to immerse players in its world. You can feel the patter of rain and the crunch of leaves beneath your feet.

Gaming is now one of our most popular cultural forms. In 2024, 3.3 billion people played games on consoles or mobile phones.²

It makes a lot of money. According to the Financial Times: "Research suggests that it is not far off generating as much revenue as publishing and filmed entertainment combined."

Gaming was once regarded as a pursuit for basement-dwelling nerds. Games were seen as either childish or violent.

Things have changed enormously. Games have become bigger and more varied.

Today games rival the novel as our main medium for storytelling. Gaming writer Tasha Acres says that games like zombie hit The Last of Us can be thought of as "interactive novels". Like the best books they "offer insight into the human condition". 

As games have risen in popularity, books have declined. There has been a dramatic decline in reading for pleasure among young people.

The UK's National Literacy Trust reports: "Reading enjoyment levels have decreased by 8.8 percentage points over the past year alone."

Yet not everyone is convinced that games are the new literature. When we read a book we have to imagine the world it describes. Every reader's experience is different. Games demand far less of us - and give us less in return.

The novel also allows us to see how writers and their characters think. For now at least, games can only skim the surface. They are about action. But the novel can be about deeper thoughts.

Are video games the new literature?

Yes: Games are more popular than much classic literature. They have a much larger cultural impact than many contemporary books. In a few decades, games might have become our go-to source for stories.

No: Games may seem more imaginative than books because they present fully-realised worlds and non-stop action. But they are limited by their reliance on rules. Literature will always be more expansiveCovering a wide area in terms of space or scope..

Or... There is no reason that both mediums cannot exist and thrive. For decades books have competed with film and music for our attention. Games just add another flavour to this rich stew.

BAFTA - An award given at the British Academy Film Awards ceremony.

Expansive - Covering a wide area in terms of space or scope.