The Christian Video Game Industry You Didn’t Know Existed
In today’s newsletter:
- The Christian Video Game Industry You Didn’t Know Existed
- The Rise (and Fall?) of Dating Apps, Market Watch, and Is A.I. Overhyped?
- Living with Wealth without Losing Your Soul
The music industry is worth just shy of $27 billion per year. Global box office for in-theater movies was $34 billion last year. The book publishing industry makes about $44 billion per year, as a whole. The global sports industry is a cut above, pulling in approximately $159 billion dollars a year.
But even sports, with its mass appeal across cultures, is not the king of entertainment in 2024.
That title goes to video games, a $184 billion industry last year (or even $250 billion, according to some sources), and projected to grow substantially by the end of the decade.
Video games, whether you play them or not, are big business.
Consider that the most expensive movie ever made was Disney’s 2015 release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, with an eye-popping $447 million budget. Only two other films have ever cracked the $400 million mark, and only a handful have ever passed $300 million. On average, a big Hollywood blockbuster is going to cost around $100 million to make.
Grand Theft Auto VI, a highly anticipated video game from Rockstar Games, reportedly has a budget of $2 billion.
Yes, you read that right, and no, that isn’t a typo.
Billion. With a “B.”
As crazy as the numbers sound, it’s money well spent when you consider that the previous installment in the series brought in $8 billion in revenue on a budget of $265 million. Some experts expect GTA VI to earn $1.5 billion in its first 24 hours on the market.
People like video games, and they’re willing to shell out the cash to play the latest and greatest.
So the industry looks different from other segments of entertainment in terms of absolute economic value, but perhaps it differs in another way, too.
You think of the music industry, and it’s easy to think about CCM, gospel music, the Dove Awards, etc. You think about movies, and Christian media has the Erwin brothers of Kingdom Story Company, Pureflix, Angel Studios, etc. Christians dominate entire categories of the publishing industry, bringing in big revenue from self-help books, devotionals, Christian fiction, etc. But when we get to video games… What is there? Are there any Christian video games? And do there need to be?
We talked with some experts to find out.
Christian Video Games: What’s Out There
Believe it or not, Christian video games have existed since at least the early 1980s, though admittedly mostly from independent developers. Many of these games were blatant rip-offs of secular games, such as “Exodus: Journey to the Promised Land” which is essentially the same gameplay as “Boulder Dash,” in which Moses goes around tunneling through obstacles, collecting mana (big jars with the letter “M” on them) and shooting what appears to be the letter “W” to kill all his enemies. (Apparently, Moses didn’t learn his lesson from that incident with the Egyptian in the desert…) Or, you can take Noah’s Ark Super 3-D, which is Wolfenstein 3-D, except instead of a first-person shooter where you kill zombies, you are… Noah shooting high-velocity fruit at angry animals on the ark?
If you want to get a sense for what some of those early games looked like, you can check those out here, but despite the effort, most faith-based video games left something to be desired for the average gamer. One exception, however, was the independent game “Bible Adventures” from Wisdom Tree, which many gamers remember fondly. It is actually three games in one, where the user can choose to play as Noah chasing down all of the animals he needs for the ark, as Miriam trying to carry baby Moses to safety in a challenging platformer, or as David as he collects sheep (a lot of sheep) before fighting the giant Goliath.
Through the 90s and early 2000s, things got weirder, and the general trend of low-quality, strange, and rip-off concepts and gameplay continued, for the most part. Critics were not kind when reviewing “Adam’s Venture: Origins,” calling it, “a bad adventure game,” “simply in shambles,” and “such a wooden game.” “Timothy and Titus” is a bizarre game in which the apostle Paul’s protegees flip and jump around obstacle courses in the wilderness a la “Banjo and Kazooie,” albeit in a less fun, lower quality version. 2004’s “Walls of Jericho” was just “Bejewled” but with a Middle Eastern aesthetic and little Israelites marching at the bottom of the screen. “Guitar Praise” was a lower quality “Guitar Hero” rip-off with Christian music. “The You Testament” features a protagonist who follows Jesus around and sucks spiritual energy into his chakras in order to perform miracles in what sounds like a strange and fairly heretical take on Christian video games.
Not a fabulous foray into the industry, you might say. Ben Reese, a tech worker with a background in interactive entertainment and a committed Christian, sums up the problem this way:
“When I think of Christian media, I can’t help but cringe, because nobody likes propaganda.”
Trained at the University of Southern California’s video game design program and a former Disney Imagineer, Reese is currently designing a Christian board game for families. He’s spent a lot of time thinking about what Christian games ought to look like, and to him, the real issue is upholding the principles of our faith through excellence, creativity, and concern for the user’s wants and needs. “What they can enjoy,” he says, “is what they call ‘sugarcoating the pill.’ If you want someone to learn or understand something via entertainment, you have to still provide that entertainment in an engaging way. A lot of Christians in media do a bad job at that, because they say, ‘Well, the point is the pill.’ But when storytelling comes second to the message… it makes it really hard to be fun.”
Thankfully, in the mid-2010s, things started getting a bit better for Christian video games.
Guardians of Ancora, a mobile parkour game where players can enter the stories of the Bible, came out in 2015 and was well-received, even winning some awards. Five: Guardians of David, also released in 2015, is an action RPG that has been compared (ironically?) to the Diablo series of games. It allows the player to battle through Canaan as David’s 5 mightiest warriors, and this game, too, seemed to be enjoyed by the majority of its audience.
The real breakout success, however, would come in 2016.
“Honestly, the only Christian game I’m aware of and will evangelize for is ‘That Dragon, Cancer,’” says Brian Choi, a 3D character artist for ILM Immersive and a lifelong Christian. “It’s effective and it accomplishes its mission of ‘This is what it’s like to love Joel.’”
He’s referring to a game by Ryan and Amy Green and a small team at Numinous Games, who created an extremely innovative, immersive, and emotional game about their experience receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis for their 12-month-old son, Joel. The game is more than a movie, it is a playable tour that really invites the player into their experience, with all of the highs and lows, to tremendous effect, showing the reality of mortality, the need for prayer, and faith in life’s most trying times.
“The last sequence of the game has you feed pancakes to Joel in a little mini-game,” Choi continues. “And it’s such a visceral feeling and setup for the game to force you to say goodbye. Technically, you can keep playing that particular mini-game over and over again, and the game does nothing to tell you that you have to leave. But you do understand, at the moment you stop, you will no longer be with Joel – and that’s the end of the game. That’s mechanically and artistically such a beautiful synergy that a lot of games try and fail to accomplish, or they don’t do it nearly as well.”
“That Dragon, Cancer” was nominated for “Best Debut” by BAFTA in 2017, and it won the “Most Innovative” BAFTA award the same year. It also won a NAVGTR award and was featured in many news outlets and review sites, with high praise.
“What makes video games different from every other medium is choice,” says Ben Reese. “That’s the beauty of games. I think Christian video games can be really, really good and powerful.”
What’s Coming Soon
There are a couple of highly anticipated Christian video games in the works that could help to carry the sub-genre back into the popular consciousness again, namely “Gate Zero” and “Visions.”
“Gate Zero” raised hundreds of thousands of dollars via crowd-funding campaigns, and has already produced a playable prototype that puts the user in ancient Israel, with the full interactive exploration game due for release next year. The designers consulted extensively with biblical scholars and historians, and they obviously cared about the artwork. It looks like an interesting game that might just teach Christian teenagers some valuable knowledge about the world and historical context of the Bible, in an incidental way that doesn’t feel too on-the-nose.
“Visions” is a Christian MMORPG (that’s a lot of letters for “Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game”) that seeks to redeem the screen by having kids immersed in interactive Bible stories via their characters, teaching them real-life skills and educational facts as well. Players can even meet up for digital Bible studies and worship sessions. In a way, this is reminiscent of Saddleback and Life.Church, who have both recently begun streaming church services in the Metaverse. It sounds odd and maybe even off-putting at first, but reportedly the services are gratefully “attended” by persecuted Christians in oppressive countries and by the extremely physically disabled.
The Christian videogame industry is admittedly small, often awkward, and trying to find its legs. A few notable successes make it clear, however, that this can be done well. There is, evidently, some segment of the market that very much wants to interact with a biblical worldview, or even with the biblical text, as gamers in the realm they know best.
But this isn’t the only way of thinking about Christian video games.
Another Perspective
We spoke with Chris Skaggs, head of Soma Games and one of the founders of the Imladris community and conference, and asked him what he thought of the Christian video game industry.
“The church, especially the protestant church, has never made up its mind about the arts,” he says. The problem, according to Skaggs, is that video games cost a tremendous amount of money to produce, are financially risky, and there are always plenty of voices saying that the money could be used better elsewhere. Due to an extreme lack of will and funding, many Christian games on the market have been “cheap knockoffs or didactic things,” because there simply wasn’t a mandate to create something greater.
He’s quick to caution against cynicism, however.
“If your perception is that Christian games suck, then change your perception. Let me point out that Sid Meier’s “Civilization” is a Christian game, in that its creator is a committed Christian. Myst was the most successful game in the world for a long time, and Rand and Robyn Miller are Christians. Club Penguin, the top youth MMO ever, was made by a believer. If you don’t just think ‘Bible games’ but think ‘games made by a believer,’ those are some of the best examples in the world.”
Chris says that video games are absolutely the future of entertainment, and Christians need to participate and shape the art, even in non-religiously-explicit ways.
“Jesus’ parables were not didactic,” he points out. “They were emotive. They were designed to be misunderstood by people who don’t have eyes to see, and that drives people nuts! But that was how Jesus told stories, and it is powerful.”
Can Christians be edified and educated through video games? Can they be used evangelistically, in a way that still honors the art form, or should Christian artists and investors focus on non-explicitly religious games that nonetheless embody a Christian worldview or deep spiritual truths? Can we tell our stories here, in this unfamiliar territory?
Some experts say yes. Making choices – even fantastical, imaginary choices in a videogame – trains our minds to look at the world a certain way, and that makes this art form unique.
“Games can’t do everything,” says Skaggs, “but they create empathy, because the player participates. The power that goes into that embodiment is powerful like no other art form. It gives you that moment of being there.”
“In my opinion,” Reese says,” this is absolutely the most powerful medium to tell stories in – because it’s interactive.”
INDUSTRY INSIGHTS
The Rise (and Fall?) of Dating Apps, Market Watch, and Is A.I. Overhyped?
The Rise (and Fall?) of Dating Apps
The dating scene has changed quite a bit in the last decade or two, with demographic data now stating that 12% of currently married couples met their spouses online, and nearly 3 in 10 adults report having used online dating apps – and over 50% of US adults under 30 have used them. It’s no wonder, then, that this trend on online matchmaking has spawned such a robust industry. In 2022, the online dating industry brought in $7.2 billion in revenue, with $3.4 billion of that coming from just one entity: Match Group (which owns Tinder, OkCupid, PlentyofFish, Match.com, and more). These apps, which naturally involve a transitory customer base, typically employ a “freemium” monetization strategy, and at present, it is estimated that roughly 35% of all dating app users have paid for premium features, usually in the form of a weekly or monthly subscription fee. Despite the trends and heavy user base (Tinder alone has 75 million users, 8 million of them paying customers), this economy and changing consumer patterns have put a sudden question mark on the previously strong growth of these apps. Match Group and Bumble, who together control almost all of the market share in this industry, have lost $40 billion in market value in just the past couple of years, leading to recent price increases to consumers who are, evidently, already growing wearing of the high subscription costs associated with online dating. One possible explanation for this phenomenon is “subscription fatigue,” which is the growing trend of consumers being tired of having so many recurring payments for goods and services.
Market Watch
The commodities market has seen some shake-ups recently, as OPEC extends oil production cuts into 2025, cryptocurrency Ethereum may soon be treated as a commodity by the SEC, and we face a massive copper shortage in the near future. Chocolate prices continue to soar (over 300% in the last three months), leaving some to ask if chocolate could soon become a luxury good. Corn futures, on the other hand, have been falling steadily for the past week, down about 6% as of Monday. In the stock market, we’ve begun to see a recovery after the last couple of weeks’ correction in the Dow, which closed above 40,000 on May 17th. The S&P 500 has been steadier, remaining elevated at 5,200 for nearly a month now. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate increased slightly this week, to 7.17%, and consumer confidence improved somewhat last month, despite continued fears over inflation.
Is A.I. Overhyped?
According to the Wall Street Journal, the “A.I. Revolution” is already losing steam. The technological capabilities of many of these A.I. have, in many cases, been faked in order to convince investors that they were more advanced than they really were. The true usefulness of these technologies has now been called into question, since it is clear that A.I. still needs knowledgeable humans to, at minimum, check their work and make corrections. WSJ points out that the pace of innovation and improvement in existing A.I. has slowed tremendously, the technology is incredibly costly in terms of energy and money, and the relatively small amount of revenue produced thus far makes you wonder if the massive investment will ever pay off. Meanwhile, Sam Altman, of Open A.I., is seeking to raise $5-7 trillion to empower the A.I. boom. Investor exuberance over the possibility of future A.I. capabilities and revenue is arguably what is keeping the stock market afloat right now, but so far, Nvidia is the only one to win big in a measurable way.
Sunday School
Did You Know?
The Bible is FULL of deliberate parallelism, often telling stories that repeat one another to give the reader another perspective or to further reveal the heart of the matter. So in Genesis, for example, The Flood story is a sort of retelling of the story of Creation. Noah’s Injury and Cursing of Canaan parallels Cain and Abel. The Tower of Babel is like the Flood story again. Isaac’s story is like Abraham’s story, but Isaac is able to overcome temptation where Abraham fell to it. Keep an eye out for similarities between stories – they are on purpose!
“Dear Lord, today I’m seeking 3 years of financial prosperity, favor with my boss, and a smokin’ hot wife in exchange for 10% of my earnings”
TIPS & TRICKS
Book Recommendation
Christian Living
Living with Wealth without Losing Your Soul
By: Steve Perry
Pastor Steve Perry found himself in a pickle.
He had always considered it more virtuous to be poor than wealthy. He thought that people who were materially rich were an affront to God, and he, in all of his piety, would dedicate his life to ministry, not filthy lucre.
But God has a sense of humor, doesn’t He?
Steve fell in love with a wonderful woman and married her… only to find out that they were extremely, extremely wealthy. Suddenly, Steve was facing an identity crisis, a doctrinal crisis, and very real questions of faithful stewardship and financial management that had never anticipated before.
In this helpful book, the reader gets to walk through Steve’s journey “from guilt to grace,” receiving a very honest, balanced, and useful dose of advice on how “Christians of means” ought to use their wealth, interact with (and serve) those around them, and relate to God. If you are wrestling with questions of financial faithfulness, guilt over being successful, or even if you just want to read an interesting story, don’t skip Living with Wealth without Losing Your Soul by Steve Perry.
Quick Hits
- Former President Donald Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in New York on charges that have been called spurious by many legal efforts. In the 24 hours following his conviction, the Trump campaign raised over $50 million. As of Monday, he had raised over $200 million.
- Big news in entertainment, as Paramount and Skydance have agreed to terms in a merger deal.
- The Gospel Coalition points to voice-enabled Chat GPT and the 2013 movie Her to remind Christians of the creative, society-shaping role of art and storytelling.
- The Reddit Traders are back: Gamestop stock soared 60% Monday, and other meme stocks rallied as well, such as AMC, Blackberry, and Reddit.
- Pew Research reports that the middle class is shrinking.
Note: As we move into summer, Sent To Win will send every other Wednesday. We’ll resume our weekly cadence after Labor Day.
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