Designing an Effective Next Generation Gaming/Entertainment Console Market Strategy for Gamers and Non-Gamers


Book Description

The game console industry is relatively new having started in the 70s, where it experienced its first boom with Atari. Although the success of Atari was enormous, it would have been difficult to imagine that four decades later the Global games market would be worth a staggering $81.5Bn USD in 2014 alone. Through the next decades, Atari gave way to the three dominant players that control basically all the game console market, namely Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft. In recent years, new game platforms have emerged in the form of mobile (Android, iOS), and they are gaining market share - this upward trend in global revenue should keep Microsoft's bigwigs awake at night. The aim of this paper is to evaluate and recommend a marketing strategy to be followed by Microsoft in order to increase its market share in the highly dynamic and competitive videogame console industry.




Innovation and Marketing in the Video Game Industry


Book Description

Video games have had a greater impact on our society than almost any other leisure activity. They not only consume a large portion of our free time, they influence cultural trends, drive microprocessor development, and help train pilots and soldiers. Now, with the Nintendo Wii and DS, they are helping people stay fit, facilitating rehabilitation, and creating new learning opportunities. Innovation has played a major role in the long term success of the video game industry, as software developers and hardware engineers attempt to design products that meet the needs of ever widening segments of the population. At the same time, companies with the most advanced products are often proving to be less successful than their competitors. Innovation and Marketing in the Video Game Industry identifies patterns that will help engineers, developers, and marketing executives to formulate better business strategies and successfully bring new products to market. Readers will also discover how some video game companies are challenging normal industry rules by using radical innovations to attract new customers. Finally, this revealing book sheds light on why some innovations have attracted legions of followers among populations that have never before been viewed as gamers, including parents and senior citizens and how video games have come to be used in a variety of socially beneficial ways. David Wesley and Gloria Barczak's comparison of product features, marketing strategies, and the supply chain will appeal to marketing professionals, business managers, and product design engineers in technology intensive industries, to government officials who are under increasing pressure to understand and regulate video games, and to anyone who wants to understand the inner workings of one of the most important industries to emerge in modern times. In addition, as video games become an ever more pervasive aspect of media entertainment, managers from companies of all stripes need to understand video gaming as a way to reach potential customers.




Video Game Marketing


Book Description

The video game industry has been one of the fastest-growing cultural phenomena of our times with market conditions that demand a specific skill set from its marketers. To a new generation of "indie gamers", being a game developer isn’t just about design and production, a successful video game demands entrepreneurial skills and astute business acumen. The creators need to know what their customers want, how to reach those customers and how to sell to them. Video Game Marketing: A student textbook is for development students or aspiring developers who want to know how to promote and sell the results of their efforts. This book is a much-needed guide to: • the essentials of marketing strategy; • video games as products or services; • marketing research for game development; • branding video games; • marketing through game: gamification, advergames. Replete with pedagogy to aid learning such as objectives and discussion questions for each chapter, this book is all that aspiring video game developers will need to unleash the potential of their games.




Approaches and Strategies in Next Generation Science Learning


Book Description

Approaches and Strategies in Next Generation Science Learning examines the challenges involved in the development of modern curriculum models, teaching strategies, and assessments in science education in order to prepare future students in the 21st century economies. This comprehensive collection of research brings together science educators, researchers and administrators interested in enhancing the teaching and learning of next generation science.




Changing the Game


Book Description

Use Video Games to Drive Innovation, Customer Engagement, Productivity, and Profit! Companies of all shapes and sizes have begun to use games to revolutionize the way they interact with customers and employees, becoming more competitive and more profitable as a result. Microsoft has used games to painlessly and cost-effectively quadruple voluntary employee participation in important tasks. Medical schools have used game-like simulators to train surgeons, reducing their error rate in practice by a factor of six. A recruiting game developed by the U.S. Army, for just 0.25% of the Army’s total advertising budget, has had more impact on new recruits than all other forms of Army advertising combined. And Google is using video games to turn its visitors into a giant, voluntary labor force--encouraging them to manually label the millions of images found on the Web that Google’s computers cannot identify on their own. Changing the Game reveals how leading-edge organizations are using video games to reach new customers more cost-effectively; to build brands; to recruit, develop, and retain great employees; to drive more effective experimentation and innovation; to supercharge productivity...in short, to make it fun to do business. This book is packed with case studies, best practices, and pitfalls to avoid. It is essential reading for any forward-thinking executive, marketer, strategist, and entrepreneur, as well as anyone interested in video games in general. In-game advertising, advergames, adverworlds, and beyond Choose your best marketing opportunities--and avoid the pitfalls Use gaming to recruit and develop better employees Learn practical lessons from America’s Army and other innovative case studies Channel the passion of your user communities Help your customers improve your products and services--and have fun doing it What gamers do better than computers, scientists, or governments Use games to solve problems that can’t be solved any other way




Gaming, Simulations and Society


Book Description

Annotation This book presents a current research scope and perspective of Simulation and Gaming. Theoretical problems of Simulation and Gaming will be examined with a view to improving the social sciences through the introduction of the techniques and concepts of Simulation and Gaming. The fields of economics, political science, psychology and business management can all be radically improved by introducing such techniques of Simulation and Gaming as the Agent-Based Modelling. Other important topics are the analysis of philosophical foundations in Simulation and Gaming as an academic discipline. The ever growing and massive popularity of PC and arcade games cannot be ignored. Their potential as agents of education and their essentially violent nature raise many ethical and moral problems that need to be addressed.




Crafting and Executing Strategy


Book Description

This new edition of Craftingand Executing Strategy continues to provide a valuable resource forEuropean readers while embracing new and updated core concepts and key theoriesin strategy. Throughout the text you will find a range of examples thatillustrate how strategy works in the real world and encourage the practicalapplication of learning. Complementing the chapters is a section of new casesproviding in-depth analysis of the challenges of strategic management at arange of companies. This edition includes: • A new 6Ds framework, allowing readers to structure theirapproach to strategic management around the fundamental elements of thestrategy process (Diagnosis, Direction, Decisions and Delivery) and the contextwithin which that process is managed (Dynamism and Disorder). • Opening cases that begin each chapter and feature real-lifebusiness scenarios from companies such as Tinder, Ikea and Victorinox,introducing strategic concepts and theories. • Illustration Capsules, which have been updated to illustratecontemporary business concerns and demonstrate how companies have reactedstrategically, increasing understanding of successful strategies. Companiesfeatured include Burberry, TOMS, Aldi, Novo Nordisk and more. • Key Debates that stimulate classroom discussion and encouragecritical analysis. • Emerging Themes that present contemporary strategicopportunities and issues such as ripple intelligence and technology and neworganizational structures. • A Different View encouraging readers to appreciate differingviewpoints on strategic concepts and theories. • End of chapter cases that capture each chapter’s main theoriesthrough engaging cases on companies such as Adidas and Nike, Lego and Uber. • New recommended reading at the end of each chapter which help tofurther knowledge, including classic texts and advanced reading, and authornotes providing context Connect is McGraw-Hill Education’s learning and teachingenvironment that improves student performance and outcomes while promotingengagement and comprehension of content. New for this edition are interview-style videos, featuring authorAlex Janes in discussion with business leaders, exploring how organizationalstrategy has developed within companies as diverse as Jeep, Levi Strauss, NovoNordisk and a prestigious oil and gas company. The videos are provided infull-length or in segments, with questions aimed at encouraging classroomdiscussion or self-testing. This new edition is available with SmartBook, McGraw-HillEducation’s adaptive, digital tool that tests students’ knowledge of key conceptsand pinpoints the topics on which they need to focus study time. Crafting and Executing Strategy is also available with both TheBusiness Strategy Game and GLO-BUS – the world’sleading business strategy simulations.




Handbook of Research on Innovations in Technology and Marketing for the Connected Consumer


Book Description

Connected customers, using a wide range of devices such as smart phones, tablets, and laptops have ushered in a new era of consumerism. Now more than ever, this change has prodded marketing departments to work with their various IT departments and technologists to expand consumers’ access to content. In order to remain competitive, marketers must integrate marketing campaigns across these different devices and become proficient in using technology. The Handbook of Research on Innovations in Technology and Marketing for the Connected Consumer is a pivotal reference source that develops new insights into applications of technology in marketing and explores effective ways to reach consumers through a wide range of devices. While highlighting topics such as cognitive computing, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality, this publication explores practices of technology-empowered digital marketing as well as the methods of applying practices to less developed countries. This book is ideally designed for marketers, managers, advertisers, branding teams, application developers, IT specialists, academicians, researchers, and students.




Game Plan


Book Description

The $20 billion computer and video gaming business is the fastest-growing entertainment medium in the world---on track to surpass both the movie and record businesses. More than 200 million computer and video games are sold to the 140 million gamers in America every year. Game Plan: The Insiders Guide to Breaking In and Succeeding in the Computer and Video Game Business is the first book that clearly explains how to get a foot in the door to this incredibly dynamic and exciting field. This essential guide includes everything job seekers need to know about: -How the computer and video game business really works -How to break into the industry -How to get your dream game made -The many different jobs in the field -Surviving and thriving in the marketplace Three top game veterans provide all the information readers need to begin their search: Alan Gershenfeld, former senior vice-president of Activision Studios, Mark Loparco, one of the industry's top edutainment producers, and Cecilia Barajas, an acclaimed game producer/ director and a design consultant on hundreds of games. Game Plan also features expert advice by top gamemakers from such leading game publishers and developers as Electronic Arts, Activision, Microsoft, Midway, LucasArts, and THQ. No matter what your background or job qualifications are, Game Plan will help you to decide which area of the video and computer game business appeals to you the most, and how to attain your goals of working in the industry. For anyone who's ever dreamed of one day making a game, or is simply curious if this is the field to go into---this book is a must-read.




Game-Based Marketing


Book Description

Harness the power of games to create extraordinary customer engagement with Game-Based Marketing. Gamification is revolutionizing the web and mobile apps. Innovative startups like Foursquare and Swoopo, growth companies like Gilt and Groupon and established brands like United Airlines and Nike all agree: the most powerful way to create and engage a vibrant community is with game mechanics. By leveraging points, levels, badges, challenges, rewards and leaderboards – these innovators are dramatically lowering their customer acquisition costs, increasing engagement and building sustainable, viral communities. Game-Based Marketing unlocks the design secrets of mega-successful games like Zynga’s Farmville, World of Warcraft, Bejeweled and Project Runway to give you the power to create winning game-like experiences on your site/apps. Avoid obvious pitfalls and learn from the masters with key insights, such as: Why good leaderboards shouldn’t feature the Top 10 players. Most games are played as an excuse to socialize, not to achieve. Status is worth 10x more than cash to most consumers. Badges are not enough: but they are important. You don’t need to offer real-world prizing to run a blockbuster sweepstakes. And learn even more: How to architect a point system that works Designing the funware loop: the basics of points, badges, levels, leaderboards and challenges Maximizing the value and impact of badges Future-proofing your design Challenging users without distraction Based on the groundbreaking work of game expert and successful entrepreneur Gabe Zichermann, Game-Based Marketing brings together the game mechanics expertise of a decade’s worth of research. Driven equally by big companies, startups, 40-year-old men and tween girls, the world is becoming increasingly more fun. Are you ready to play?