In recent years, the video game industry has invested significant amounts in the development of innovative elements for its products. However, it is still subject to debate whether these R&D investments always pay off. While prior research has confirmed that enhancing product innovativeness increases business performance in certain industries, corresponding findings for the video game market are lacking. This might be a result of missing theoretical conceptualizations and adequate empirical operationalizations of game innovativeness. Addressing this research gap, this study provides the first conceptualization and operationalization of game innovativeness, shedding first light on its performance effects. Based on longitudinal data on 351 computer games, our findings confirm that innovations in the game’s presentation and principle enhance short-term success, whereas innovations in a game’s storyline can be more of a hindrance than a godsend for companies. However, our results also show that performance effects of game innovativeness diminish over time.

近年来，视频游戏行业已投入大量资金为其产品开发创新元素。然而，这些研发投资是否总能得到回报仍有待商榷。虽然先前的研究已经证实，提高产品创新性可以提高某些行业的业务绩效，但缺乏针对视频游戏市场的相应发现。这可能是由于缺少理论概念化和游戏创新性的充分经验操作化的结果。针对这一研究空白，本研究提供了游戏创新性的第一个概念化和操作化，首次揭示了其性能影响。基于 351 款电脑游戏的纵向数据，我们的研究结果证实，游戏呈现方式和原则的创新可以提升短期成功，而游戏故事情节的创新对公司而言可能是一种障碍，而不是天赐之物。然而，我们的结果也表明，游戏创新的性能影响会随着时间的推移而减弱。