Competitive Analysis

My research shows that about four hundred billion eighty nine million four hundred thirty seven thousand eight hundred forty seven video games are created each year worldwide, with those kind of numbers any one person could play games for their whole life and not even put a dent in it, it is very overwhelming. With more and more children spending time on video games society changes a little more. Being able to play games without the internet makes it easier to play but for those that do have internet for their video games seem to spend twice the amount of time playing because they are playing with friends and talk and IM during the game.

However, GameStop is still at a disadvantage, because there are such a large number of competitors in the industry. Buyer’s bargaining power are high, since there is no brand loyalty in the industry. Customers are very well aware of the market price of a product and will look for the best deals they can find. Suppliers have high bargaining power since suppliers can choose to integrate forward and sell their products themselves. The success of the retail gaming industry is very dependent on the availability of supplier’s goods. Additionally, since there are low barriers of entrance, substitute products and new entrants often appear in the market. Since most competitors in the industry do not have a strong presence, the expected retaliation towards new entrants is low. An increasing popularity of smartphone games and social media games such as Farmville on Facebook, allows customers to play against friends. Although these social media games do not offer the same experience as a video game, the fact that virtually no switching cost is associated with switching to a competitor’s game and since they are so cheap compared to video game disk and consoles, can easily drive customers from video gaming to online gaming. (Exhibit 2)

The lifestyle of a hardcore gamer is to be antisocial around human beings, but through the connectivity of the Internet to be social and build friendships and relationships through video games. Xbox has created a live chat while playing video games to verbally speak to the gamers or instantly chat. The social class gamer is divided by the income category that they fall on. Upper and middle class have the ability to spend money on new consoles in the gaming industry, while the lower class does not have the funds to invest in all of the new consoles that are released. The most important key point of the demographic component is the behavior of a gamer. It is important to have a strategic target plan for any new consoles; however, behavior gamers are the marketing targets to any new innovation. Behavior gamers are the most loyal consumers and it has a significant amount of the profitability to the company. As a result, the three different components makes up the target market and is very crucial to be strategic with the plan and know the potential

The mainstream gamer enjoys games but may not finish every game they buy and doesn't have time for long MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) quests. The mainstream gamer represents approx. 15% of the gaming market.

401 Games has a wide variety of customers due to extensive amount of diverse games that are offered in their store. When analyzing 401 Games as a whole, we decided on two determining variables and one qualifying variable for the best target market. We chose buying behavior and loyalty status as our two determining variables. For our qualifying variable, we selected location.

The CanGo Company had experienced many obstacles and conflicts during the development of the proposed online gaming services. It is imperative for CanGo to review or to identify any problems that could threaten the company’s future goal. First of all, All team management of the company need to have a clear vision about the company’s long term planning, and analyze very carefully what audience would be targeted for the online gaming services. Also CanGo needs to perform a reliable analysis about their financial status, and making sure that they have the equipment is fully functional and available necessary before they start on new online gaming project. CanGo should also consider that each staff is fully aware about the CanGo’s mission, and this would be a positive way for the company to successfully achieve its goal.

As long as Nick is leading this project, we see that his distractions will ultimately cause failure. He is easily distracted and has no sense of what direction to proceed. Nick has some good ideas as far as what they need to prepare for the online gaming to launch, such as he hardware and how they will obtain bandwidth. The CanGo team also needs to decide if they are capable to take on this project, since most members are not familiar with online gaming they need to decide if they need to bring in outside help.

To achieve a distinction, I will be exploring the future of the gaming industry on each of the various platforms.

It is clear that CanGo did not have any type of formal strategic plan for moving forward. All the members of the planning team needed to be on the same page. Andrew, the company’s Director of Marketing, just seemed to be thinking about having fun. “I know this is a hard concept, but we’re talking about fun. You know fun? Remember when you were young?” (Prentice Hall, 2002) while Ethel, the Director of Accounting, was concerned more about the financial aspects of online gaming, how it’s going to impact the organization, and where it is going to take the company. Elizabeth, the CEO and company founder, needs to have another meeting with the key members of all the departments and pay attention to her staff’s concerns pertaining to the online gaming venture before moving any further with the online gaming plans.

The market for board games has seen annual increases of 10-20 per cent over the last decade, leading some to suggest we are in a “board game renaissance” (Carlson, 2013).

The video game industry is the economic sector involved with the development, marketing and sale of video and computer games. It includes video game consoles, game software, handheld devices, mobile games and online games. The video gaming industry has been growing exponentially in recent years with Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo competing for the higher profits in the market. This essay will analyze each of the five forces acting on the industry: threat of new entrants, threat of substitute products or services, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, and the competitive rivalry among existing firms. Then it will be determined if the video game industry is still an

Future growth expectations for the Video Games industry have been significantly moderated, as the picture of the market for gaming on mobile platforms becomes clearer. Since mobile games are sold at much lower prices compared to traditional console and PC games, their rise may foretell a slowdown of the video game market in the United States. While the recent launch of the next generation video game consoles is expected to rekindle interest in the more expensive console gaming market, the rise of low-cost, low-margin mobile gaming market may weigh on the overall gaming market. Consequently, this is expected to pull revenue downward as consumers pay less per hour for gaming entertainment. Revenue is expected to reach $47.4 billion in 2019 as a result of the expanding population and an increased percentage of Americans

Sometimes it seems like the computer game industry is dying, crushed to death by its own bulk. Every year more and more gaming companies get gobbled up into huge conglomerates like Electronic Arts, companies that mostly put out trash that is technically and visually impressive, but devoid of concept and content. However, there are some small gaming companies that buck the trend. While mostly just small groups of programmers and artists, some are huge unions of fans who, irritated with the dropping quality of computer games, have decided to use the power of the internet to get together and to produce games tailor-made to their personal preferences.

* Instead of focusing on one particular target segment (18 to 35 year-old male gamers with above average-education and high degree of comfort with new technology) further target segments should also be focused (e.g. women, children, occasional gamers and non-gamers). Some of the further customers require games which are easy to play because they have a low degree of comfort with new technologies. Furthermore some of them don’t want to invest a significant amount of their time to learn and play these games because of their busy lives.

Development in technology brings many things that people don't have many years back. One of these things is online gaming that is provided by the internet.