Power Play
- Author George E. Osborn
- Narrator George E. Osborn
- Publisher Headline
- Publish Date 18 June 2026
- Run Time 12 hours and 32 minutes
- Format Audio
- Genre Computer and video game industry, eSports / Professional video gaming, Geopolitics, Information technology industries, Politics and government.
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What to expect
'Essential reading for anyone trying to understand where the next influence operation is being built'
ELIOT HIGGINS, founder of Bellingcat
'Revelatory . . . will fundamentally change how you understand modern power'
KELLY CLANCY, author of Playing with Reality
__________________________________
In Power Play, leading game industry expert George E. Osborn reveals how video games - the world's largest entertainment medium - are being used by autocrats, populists and violent extremists to influence the real world around us.
Video games are the world's largest entertainment medium. They are played by billions of people of all ages every year, generating hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue.
But they are more than an entertainment product. They connect people across the globe, creating digital third places where people talk, share ideas and build identities, fostering diverse communities capable of dominating the digital discourse now shaping our reality.
While democracies continue to underestimate the potential for influence in this space, others have seized the opportunity to control, co-opt or collaborate with video game communities to wield the power of these vast information ecosystems.
Saudi Arabia is spending tens of billions of dollars acquiring video games businesses to wash its reputation. Russia has funded video game development to help spread disinformation about the war in Ukraine. Steve Bannon utilised tactics deployed by online video game communities to propel Donald Trump into the White House, and Charlie Kirk's alleged assassin even carved video game references into his bullets.
Supported by the insights of politicians, academics and industry experts, Power Play is the vital guide for understanding this new political frontier, highlighting what democracies must do to protect and harness the immense power of play before the essential battle for digital influence is lost for good.
ELIOT HIGGINS, founder of Bellingcat
'Revelatory . . . will fundamentally change how you understand modern power'
KELLY CLANCY, author of Playing with Reality
__________________________________
In Power Play, leading game industry expert George E. Osborn reveals how video games - the world's largest entertainment medium - are being used by autocrats, populists and violent extremists to influence the real world around us.
Video games are the world's largest entertainment medium. They are played by billions of people of all ages every year, generating hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue.
But they are more than an entertainment product. They connect people across the globe, creating digital third places where people talk, share ideas and build identities, fostering diverse communities capable of dominating the digital discourse now shaping our reality.
While democracies continue to underestimate the potential for influence in this space, others have seized the opportunity to control, co-opt or collaborate with video game communities to wield the power of these vast information ecosystems.
Saudi Arabia is spending tens of billions of dollars acquiring video games businesses to wash its reputation. Russia has funded video game development to help spread disinformation about the war in Ukraine. Steve Bannon utilised tactics deployed by online video game communities to propel Donald Trump into the White House, and Charlie Kirk's alleged assassin even carved video game references into his bullets.
Supported by the insights of politicians, academics and industry experts, Power Play is the vital guide for understanding this new political frontier, highlighting what democracies must do to protect and harness the immense power of play before the essential battle for digital influence is lost for good.
Critics Review
Urgent, fascinating . . . will fundamentally change how you understand modern power.
Osborn has done what too few researchers and journalists bother to do: take video games seriously as an information environment. The same ecosystems I've watched get exploited for disinformation, the Discord servers, the Twitch streams, the in-game communities, are mapped here with forensic clarity. Power Play is essential reading for anyone trying to understand where the next influence operation is being built.
Frequently surprising and utterly absorbing whether you're a gamer or not. Osborn shines a vital light on the significant and often troubling impact video games are having on global politics.
In Power Play, George Osborn lays out exactly how we got here: how technology developed for entertainment became a way for political campaigns and regimes to influence millions. He exposes how the Saudi Arabian, Chinese and Russian states and extremists across the world have leveraged the power of games, and how far behind democracies are in understanding or countering this. Anyone who still thinks that video games are trivial will learn from this book exactly why they are not.
Unnervingly clear . . . Perfectly accessible for readers who know nothing about video games and frequently surprising even for those who know a lot, Power Play uncovers . . . the essential but often overlooked role of video games in shaping everything from the invention of the iPhone to the election of Donald Trump. This book is the best way for the rest of the world to catch up.
Should be required reading for those worried about the future of their hobby - and the democratic leaders who could help change the game.
A remarkable account of how and why video games became the most important entertainment space of the 21st century. Osborn writes with authority and passion. Anyone who cares about the intersection of politics and play - and everyone should - needs to read this book.
Essential reading for anyone trying to understand where culture, technology, and power collide.
A great book to introduce you to the most important cultural technique of this century and how it is used by our adversaries to corrode and undermine our democracies.
Gaming environments have been a frontier for geopolitical influence and state control for longer than most of us would have thought, yet our collective awareness remains dangerously low. George's book masterfully shines a much needed light on these issues, providing vital wake-up call for anyone concerned with the intersection of technology, power, and global security.
An eye-opening account of the power and influence of the global gaming industry. Games are meant to be fun. Here is a frank explanation of how they can be manipulated. George deftly and pointedly illustrates that mainstream society and democratic institutions need to play catch-up; or risk being continually blindsided by the consequences of the gaming's rapid growth and evolution.
It is easy to think of gaming as a virtual world that ends when the console turns off. Power Play makes clear, to veterans and n00bs alike, not just how games have become a contested terrain of diplomacy, politics and global security, but how and why democracies need to engage with this.
George has captured one of the most important, and under-examined, dynamics driving international politics today: the way video games and the culture surrounding them are being used to influence our expectations of free speech and civil rights. Drawing on a deep familiarity with gaming as an industry, George links historical developments in technology, marketing, and culture to show how governments are building on and shaping the way young people experience and interpret the world.
George Osborn is perhaps the first to see with real clarity what almost everyone else has missed: that video games are the coffee houses of our age, a vast third-space society connecting billions of people, many of them disenchanted with the world as it is. He shows how this immense network became politically consequential, and how the right has been far quicker than the left to grasp and exploit its potential.
An eye-opening read detailing the malicious and nefarious ways external forces attempt (and sometimes succeed) to twist the joys of gaming into vehicles for political influence.
| Author | George E. Osborn |
|---|---|
| Narrator | George E. Osborn |
| Duration | 12 hours and 32 minutes |
| Release Date | |
| ISBN | 9781035423323 |
| Format | Audiobook |
| Publisher | Headline |
| Genre | Computer and video game industry, eSports / Professional video gaming, Geopolitics, Information technology industries, Politics and government |
| Availability | AU, GB, IE |
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