Replay: The History of Video Games
2010 book about the history of video games
Replay: The History of Video Games is a book on the history of video games by Tristan Donovan.
Publication
Donovan interviewed over 140 game developers and businesspeople for the book. The book's advertising campaign, led by Cathy Campos, was recognized in PR Week.
Reception
Multiple journalists praised the book's treatment of European game history, which had been neglected in previous works, and criticized its organizational structure. At the time of its release, Chris Baker of Wired wrote that Replay was the most thorough and comprehensive history of the subject. Colin Moriarty of IGN noted the book's generalist position in relation to other game histories, as of 2014. He added that Donovan's thoroughness made for an interesting story about the industry's humble origins. Moriarty appreciated Donovan's approach to the European computer-centric and pre-console history as a departure from the litany of publications on early American companies and Japan's entry into the American market.
The public source identifies “Replay: The History of Video Games” as 2010 book about the history of video games. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Replay, History and Video.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 2, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q24038031. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2014.
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This entry incorporates text from “Replay: The History of Video Games” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.