A review of research on learning through video games

This paper examines 50 publications between 2003 and 2018 related to video games and learning outcomes. Our analysis considers two main trends: the potentialities of computer games and, on the other side, theoretical approaches to support the use of digital games as learning tools. In spite of the wide acceptance of video games among scientists and educators, the results of this research exposes the variety of outcomes and also some setbacks around the impact of digital games on learning. The diversity of outcomes is understood since the large number of existing theoretical frameworks and perspectives to analyze that impact. We conclude that the theoretical approach of the issue should include multiple perspectives simultaneously, being the cognitive and the sociocultural two of the main ones