Studying video games: current research and approaches, prospects and limitations

The article is devoted to the sociological study of video games as a significant multidimensional socio-cultural and socio-technical phenomenon of modern digital culture. Video games function not only as a form of leisure but also as a complex social institution and a multifaceted object of analysis. The study examines principal current sociological approaches, including platform sociology, digital ethnography, the cultural sociology of digital consumption, critical sociology, and socio-material frameworks. Particular attention is paid to prospects for future research - such as interdisciplinarity, emerging technologies, and cross-cultural analysis - as well as existing limitations encompassing methodological, theoretical, and the inherent dynamism of the subject matter. The article underscores the importance of sociological reflection on video games for understanding the transformations of modern digital society driven by digitalization, the emergence of platform logic as the dominant economic and social model, shifts in communication modalities, identity construction, and the organization of collective action.