Reading 08

 

(Book)

Introduction

Marketing video games is a key component in the video game making process. Without game marketing games would not see the popularity they have today. There are a few components that will help market a game. In this chapter some of the components mentioned are how to use an already established fan base, ways to monetise games that are based on the free to play model, and show how game budgets have grown and how marketing budgets have grown to make the video game industry one of the biggest entertainment industries in the world. There are both ethical and unethical ways to achieve game marketing and the more nefarious unethical ways tend to result in more sales this will also be covered further in this chapter.

 

 

Advertising

 

Game studios advertisers and game publishers have one common goal, to spread awareness of their product and then make a profit from it. Advertising is a key factor in game sales in today’s market, It can make a worse game sell better or a better game sell worse if advertising is or isn’t applied correctly. Advertising is also changing, gamers can see advertising in video games as a positive if the advert is integrated in the game so that it does not break away from the story or gameplay making it part of the game and not just an add-on. New forms of advertising are always emerging and if one can capitalise on a few aspects they can spread awareness of game and possibly increase game sales. Advertising can be used in many different ways not all of them just to spread awareness of the product it can also be used to monetise a game.

 

Monetizing

Companies are ways trying to find new sources of revenue, game companies are no different therefore there is more than a way to monetise a game. New forms of games have emerged like the free to play game, this free to play model can be very profitable as there are several ways to monetise free to play games. One direction a studio can go is to show in game ads which advertisers will pay for these “banner ads” are not integrated In the game and disconnect the player from the gameplay these are looked down at by gamers but it is sometimes a better alternative to making the game be paid for. Another direction a game studio can take is to sell in-game items that could be cosmetic items that do not influence the gameplay or these can be items that have a direct effect on gameplay that would make the game pay to win which gamers also look down upon but are more accepting in free to play models. Some Game developers have even put paid items in video games that you have to pay for which increases the revenue of the game as your company receive revenue from selling the initial game and then receive revenue as players buy in game items this tends to be more effective on men according to studies and can be used as a powerful tool to make money especially if you are willing to exploit vulnerable people.

 

 

 

Fan boys, loyalty and addiction

Companies want to make a profit, sometimes making a profit can be amplified through unethical means. Game companies and other companies involved in the game market try to exploit users into supporting and buying more of their games this is done by tie in deals with real world brands allowing players to get items if they purchase a real world item, also free to play games become a monotones time waste after a period of time and this incises players to pay for in game items to progress quicker this especially works on players that are invested in the game making it a continuous cycle. Tobacco realised the potential of exploiting people to advertise their product through video games early on in the life cycle of video games and many of the tactics that are used now came out of these tobacco companies back in the 1970s some examples are tie in deals with real world companies to promote video games and sponsoring e sport events. Video games also use advertising and subliminal messages to catch the attention of the user and turn them into loyal customers. They can then use these loyal new customers or fanboys to defend their products and buy more in game items or more games in the franchise. They do this by making games addictive and appealing to those who have an addiction problem and young people. That's why there are laws to stop such things, however companies still try to advertise to kids to increase revenue. This later on allows them to turn these children into loyal fans and sell the products based on nostalgia. Companies also try to make things look cool to make it look more appealing to children and young people.

 

 

Industry growth

The video game industry has grown rapidly ever since it began with a few bumps along the way. This growth can be seen with advertising budgets which have reached 188.9 billion dollars by 2020. This can also be seen in the app store market which video games are a large part of with the app store market which was forecast to make 6.9 billion dollars in revenue by the end of 2020. Game budgets have also gotten bigger for AAA companies going up as large as multi-million budgets, even going up to a billion. This does come with drawbacks as you have to make a game that will turn a profit and that is the primary goal, there are still passion projects in the gaming industry brought from the indie dev, these games are made on much smaller budgets and have way less people working on them. The market has also expanded from being either a PC user or a console user to mobile users which have taken hold of the market. The video game market is rapidly growing and if companies or individuals can see what work they can use to their advantage as seen in earlier paragraphs.

 

Conclusion

Now you can see how all the components discussed above help market a game and how game is now an important part of the game development process. You can also now see how these things are vital if a game studio is to make money from the game they have made. Now it is also visible how the unethical ways to market video games and the tactics used by bigger company’s results in bigger revenue. This chapter shows problems with the game industry that rent is always shown in public but that have to be countered because they will not work forever just as previous marketing tactics have eventually failed.

Today I have to talk about the reading task for this week.

I wrote an intro and a conclusion paragraph for the chapter that choose I tried to not summaries the chapter and tried to make it interesting. I also created a test your knowledge short quiz compromising of 7 questions.  I also improved on my paragraphs from last week making them longer and putting more info into them from the annotated bibliographies. I Think I written them pretty well however im sure there is room for improvement and im sure that whoever reads the paragraphs sand is forced to review my chapter will give me some tips and advice to improve.