The development of video games in Spain. Interactive entertainment trends and media coverage in the specialized digital press

With a relevance that transcends the field of entertainment, the Spanish video game is one of the most profitable European markets and one of the most important audiovisual industries. An impact that does not always have a place in the specialized press. This research studies interactive leisure from two aspects: development and its media coverage. The objective is, on the one hand, to analyze the characteristics of Spanish video games launched on the market to highlight the main development trends and, at the same time, check whether Spanish video game production has a place in the main specialized media. The method applied has been a double content analysis of 243 Spanish video games hitting the market in 2022 and their technical characteristics (month of launch, genre, autonomous community and developer), as well as the rating received by the specialized websites MeriStation, Vandal, Areajugones and Hobby Consolas. The results show that, although the Spanish video game industry has releases throughout the year and for all platforms with a heterogeneous catalogue, the titles that arouse interest in the specialized press are very specific, most of which go completely unnoticed.