Week IV Recap

In this week’s High Score Business, our writers discussed topics they each find most appealing to themselves.

Post #1: Feminism and the Video Game Industry: Mr. Shiver debunked the myth that video games is a boys-only activity. Dorito’s survey showed that the women play just about the same percentage of games men do. Because of the ill foundation of how games were first introduced, characters like Lara Croft lurked in the industry as objects rather than characters. From an analytical standpoint, due to the growth of female gamers, perhaps it may be smart for game developers to shift towards building games for a female audience for additional industry growth.

Post #2: In “LEGO: Success Made Simple”, Mr. Shiver discusses the trouble LEGO went through nearly a decade ago and how recent co-branded products like the companies successful video games releases have helped expand the value and consumer enjoyment of their products, resulting in an increase in brand value.

Post #3: Competition Within Mobile Gaming: In this post, Mr. Scheffler discussed the growth of mobile gaming. Companies like Zynga or Facebook are profiting significantly through social media games, meanwhile companies like EA are actually shutting down their social segments due to the failure of SimCity Social.

Post #4: Brand Loyalty: Mr. Collin wrote about the importance of brand loyalty. Successful companies recognize that the brand name is just as important as the product functionality in terms of sales.

Post #5: The End of an Era?: In this post, Mr. Yang discussed the recent downturn in console sales within the game industry. However, this downturn is offset by the drastic increase in mobile games and open source crowdfunding games such as Double Fine Adventure. Although seemingly like a recession for games, the video game industry is actually in its best times yet. As the game industry continues to grow, it will also change along with what the customers want. Much like all changes in any industry, some people may suffer, but over time, everyone will benefit.

Week III: Recap

Video games mean something to everyone. To the kids,  video games are  a fantastic pass time to escape a world that at time can be melancholy . Twelve- year-old gamer Jamie Clark defines video game as, “instead of just watching, you’re actually playing am major part. You’re in control of the main character. It makes you feel important.” Jamie does not have a degree in human psychology, but he stated the essential selling point of the video games: being the hero, rather than observing one.

Because video games mean a lot of things to many people, they’ve  taken a central place in entertainment culture for children and adults. Far from the solitary habit it may have been traditionally, online gaming involves communities and is based on interaction. With new advances in the gaming industry we are able to look at the past and gather more information on the economic and marketing history of the gaming industry and really analyze and learn from the market.

This notion is clearly exemplified by the following statistic: The highest grossing first day movie ticket sales during the mid 2000s was the movie Spiderman 2, netting around 40.4 million dollars in one day, highest in film history until that point. The game Halo 2 which released November of 2004 had first day sales of 100 million dollars, two and a half times more than Spiderman 2. Clearly the video game industry has begun to have an indelible impact on the entertainment market.

Video games have also allowed professionals in different industries to capitalize on the advances in the video game industry. Since 2007 XOS with the aid of EA Sports has developed a simulator to allow teams to load their plays, and those of an opponent, and then give its players a 3-D look at what they might expect to see on game day. The simulator can be used by way of a laptop or a gaming console e.g. Plastation or Xbox. Thanks to companies, such as XOS, football coaches are able to use video games as an auxiliary to coaching players receive.

Week II: Recap

In the second week of “High Score Business” we wrapped up Positive Examples & Analyzing Situations along with our Persuading Readers posts for the week.

Post #1: 2K Sports: Sole Control of the Virtual Basketball Market  (April 8)

• In this post Mr. Shiver discussed the internal factors that have made 2K sport’s NBA title “NBA 2K13” the only NBA basketball simulation on the market in 2013.
• Though quality development the physics systems of NBA 2K13 were so smooth and pleasing to users that all other titles from other developers were scrapped.
• With star power from Jay-Z, 2K sports was able to create a great in-game soundtrack and convince longtime hold outs to take lower compensations for the creation of the greatest virtual basketball experience to date. All of these factors contributed to 2K sports record-breaking year for its NBA title.

Post #2: The Cool-ness of Innuendo (April 9)

• In this post Mr. Collin digs up advertisements executed in the 1980’s by SEGA Master System in order to obtain a higher market share, which was a time in the early beginnings of the industry.
• With crude humor ads focused on a target market of young male adults SEGA set out to make consumers believe it was the “edgier” and “cooler” system to buy.
• While these messages successfully reached the target markets they did not result in higher market share. Instead Nintendo was able to maintain its position on top because parents were the ones buying the systems and did not want to expose their children to a console that had adult advertising.

Post #3: The Rise of Social Media (April 10)

• In this post Mr. Scheffler talks about how the social aspect of gaming has changed over the years with the shift from public arcades to consoles that consumers enjoy in their own homes.
• With massive online networks dedicated to connecting players from all over the world the interactive experiences these gamers have has advanced into a massive online social network.
• Also by utilizing networks like Facebook and Twitter companies like Failbetter Games have allowed users to enjoy games along side their friend they have on their social media sites.

Post #4:  Nintendo: Turning Video Games into Money Machines (April 11)

• In this post Mr. Yang changes our opinion on video games development as a once thought fools errand.
• Using Nintendo’s past business actions as proof that all it takes is one companies vision to revive or and increase ones market share Mr. Yang highlights the decisions that made Nintendo what it is today.
• With products like the “Robotic Operating Buddy” and the “Wii” Nintendo has a history of creating family friendly products that have appealed to consumers no matter their generation or experience as gamers.

Post #5: Video Games: Cultural Impact that Surpasses the Movies (April 12)

• In this post Mr. Shiver discusses the cultural impact of video games and how they have already surpassed the impact of movies.
• With references to a recent Forbes article Mr. Shiver explains how video games have duplicated the successful common story arcs of cinema and literature and turned it into their success.
• On profits alone it is shown that opening weeks for video game releases far surpass the opening weeks of movies at the Box Office.
• Lastly by giving users control of in-game decisions they are more likely to achieve a higher level of satisfaction based on Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs”.

Hope this week has been informative and entertaining !!!

Week 1: Recap

In the first week we launched “High Score Business: The Keys to Success in the Video Game Industry“

Post #1: Introduction to High Score Business (April 1)

• In this post Robert Shiver explained the goals and objectives that the blog will set out to achieve.
• Also, outlines of each group members expertise and what topics they will be focusing on.

Post #2: Digital Distribution Sale (April 2)

• In this post William Scheffler describes the changing marketplace and how it has affected the video game industry.
• By outlining the changes from brick and mortar transaction to transactions in the digital marketplaces, like iTunes ,Mr. Scheffler shows how the changes in purchasing habits might affect the future of the industry sales.

Post #3: Electronic Arts and the Storm that Ravaged SimCity (April 3)

• In this post Zhenghua Yang goes into detail about the recent launch of SimCity by long time video game developer Electronic Arts.
• By requiring Internet access for all customers SimCity has left itself vulnerable to dissatisfied customers that might want to enjoy the game offline because there is no need for internet access  for a title that has no online multiplayer options.
• Although this has been the practice of many companies in recent years, it is has also left many companies at the will of their own servers, which often crash or become overloaded with in the games first days after being released. Leaving handfuls of dissatisfied customers.

Post #4: “Make Love Not WarCraft” & Celebrity Marketing

• In this post Robert Shiver describes the co-branding that occurred when Blizzard Entertainment decided to incorporate their title “World of Warcraft” into an episode of Comedy Central’s South Park.
• This was a major gamble for the family friendly gaming company because of the offensive nature of the shows creators. But after winning an Emmy for the episode the gamble seemed to pay off.
• Also, Mr. Shiver discusses the recent marketing strategies for WoW and how with the help of celebrities from multiple generations they have successful created a marketing strategy that was able to reach  a diverse  group of consumers, which has helped keep revenue rolling in for the highest grossing game in history

Post #5: Edifying the Public: Wieden and Kennedy’s Community Involvement

• In this post Leslie Collin describes the inner workings of advertising giant Wieden and Kennedy.
• In the post Mr. Collin outlines the “Find Your Greatness” campaign, which has set out to educate adults and youth on the dangers of a physically inactive life style.
• With technology moving fast and creating shortcuts for us to expend less energy, Wieden and Kennedy states that this inactivity could shorten our lifespan by up to 5 years and so they created this campaign as a proactive approach to educate the public of what needs to be done to counter this dilemma.