This chapter focuses on the home console dispositive of the SONY Playstation in relation to digital games. The concept of the "dispositive" functions as a basis for the conceptualization of video games as an actor-network or a socio-technical arrangement respectively. This allows for an analysis and a description of various actors and their reciprocal relationships as well as the mutual process of fabrication of these actors in such video game networks. The historical development of the SONY Playstation system will serve as the primary example for these heterogenuous ensembles, whereby the main focus will be placed on one single-player game series, Grand Theft Auto, and one multiplayer game series, the soccer simulations of the FIFA series.

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During the last five years, we were able to witness the rise from amateur 'casual' gamers to superstar-entertainers with crowds of ten thousands of fans cheering to their gaming achievements and performances. This success can be directly linked to the popularity of twitch -a streaming service that has become "the dominant Western games livestreaming platform" (Witkowski 2017, p. 417) during the recent years. Although twitch was already launched in mid-2011, the true hype started with the rise and success of Battle Royale games, which became popular after the release of PUBG in 2017. 1 The theme of the 'last man standing', however, is a discourse that has been reworked in other popular media before, such as the 'Royal Rumble' in professional Wrestling, in literature, B. Ochsner ( )

This chapter focuses on the home console dispositive of the Sony Playstation in relation to digital games. The concept of the “dispositive” functions as a basis for the conceptualization of video games as an actor-network or a socio-technical arrangement, respectively. This allows for an analysis and a description of various actors and their reciprocal relationships as well as the mutual process of fabrication of these actors in such video game networks. The historical development of the Sony Playstation system will serve as the primary example for these heterogeneous ensembles, whereby the main focus will be placed on one single-player game series, Grand Theft Auto, and one multiplayer game series, the soccer simulations of the FIFA series.