Experience World War II like never before!

Especially since the 1990s, World War II has been one of the most popular historical conflicts to be represented and simulated in digital games (Mobygames, 2016). Yet, in the current body of research about these games, mainly aspects of individual games or game types, such as the World War II-themed first person shooter (FPS), have been addressed. Furthermore, only fragmentary attention has been paid to ways in which accompanying promotional materials address, and try to respond to, the target audiences of these war-games. The materials could provide great – yet somehow selective – insight into what both developers and player communities value the most about these games. The paper therefore offers a systematic and empirical quantitative content analysis of 50 of the most popular World War II-themed games for the pc by looking at their promotional description as found on the gaming platform Steam, in order to highlight their dominant themes. In addition, preliminary insights will be offered about some World War II-games that are currently in development, and the ways in which players interact with the developers to express their game-preferences.