I begin my article with a definitive conclusion: "Video games, as an industry and as an intellectual work, require innovative and robust legislation adapted to reality, moving beyond mere principles, general definitions, and interpretations regarding parental control, inventions, and copyright within each country." Costa Rica is no exception.

This is because from the very creation and development of a video game, multiple elements, actors, and phases intertwine—such as language and platform programming; production; interface design, visualization, and usability; game mechanics; storyline; artwork for backgrounds, characters, brands, and logos; storyboards for dialogues and roadmaps of events and sequences; musical compositions and audio, effects, sounds, and voice acting, among others. A video game is composed of various individual works from many minds (including different generations and fields of practice), unified by a computer program.

Video games are rooted in each of these original intellectual creations and the distinct legal relationships that arise among the various authors and actors.

By way of example, prequels are ideas that give rise to the video game by anticipating its story, while also providing the motivations and origins of its characters. On the other hand, sequels generate new stories as new derivative works—or as standalone new works if they deviate from the original plotline to build a new narrative—and are usually grouped into different sagas.

It is a common practice in Europe for publishing contracts (Contratos de Edición) to grant the publisher a right of first refusal (derecho de opción preferente) over the sequels of the work, subject to sending the information and the agreed sum to the video game's production company and/or authors beforehand. Translations, adaptations, updates, excerpts, musical or audio arrangements, and, in general, any transformations of literary, artistic, or scientific works are also subject to legal protection.

As a footnote to the above, in Costa Rica, the Publishing Contract was extensively regulated under our Code of Commerce (Código de Comercio). However, those sections were repealed in the 1980s by the Law on Copyright and Related Rights (Ley de Derechos de Autor y Derechos Conexos), which now establishes it in a "light" and outdated manner. This is because many of its provisions are practically a moot point, as the law itself establishes that its terms shall not prevail over the stipulations of a private agreement.

Spain has not peacefully resolved this issue either. Some sectors have interpreted a video game to be a "multimedia work," yet to their surprise, the term "multimedia" appears nowhere within Spanish legislation. Other Spanish authors loosely categorize it as a cinematographic work, which has been widely criticized: a cinematographic work is viewed passively, whereas a video game maintains an inherently interactive relationship with its consumers.

In Mexico, the Guidelines of the Mexican System of Video Game Content Classification Equivalencies entered into force, alongside graphical specifications for warnings, content descriptors, and interactive elements that obligated parties must implement regarding video games distributed, advertised, commercialized, or leased.

And looking beyond the Publishing Contract, intellectual property aspects, and the aforementioned parental controls, many other legal relationships "come into play" here. This includes a vast diversity of actors, contracts, and commercial transactions, such as services, licensing, production, promotion, marketing, representation, agency, distribution, franchising, joint ventures, investment, confidentiality, partnership agreements, and electronic data processing and exchange, among others.

Several international reports highlight it as the most lucrative entertainment industry in the world. The video game industry is incredibly powerful and will undoubtedly continue to skyrocket globally. This is a current reality, and it deserves significant attention, study, and updating from legal practitioners.