Analysis of Video Game Market and Competitors

CONTENTS

3. Executive Summary 18. Conclusions

4. Introduction 19 – 27. Appendices

5. Competitors

6. Collaborators

7. Customers

8. Market Objectives

9. Segmentation

10. Positioning

11. Ansoff’s matrix

12. Product

13. Promotion

14. Place and Price

15. Strategies

16. Challenges

17. Conclusions

Executive Summary

The electronic games market was worth £ m in 2002, an increase of % since 2001. Sony’s Playstation 2 accounted for the majority of this in the UK market, with sales revenue of £ m.

Increasingly UK households are acquiring electronic games every year, although the media impression of electronic games being children’s toys is a false one, regular game buyers tend to be in their 20’s and 30’s. The subject matter ranges from children’s characters, such as the popular Mario series for Nintendo, through to Grand Theft Auto and Halo for the more mature gamers from Playstation 2 and X-Box respectively.

In console games, over 60% of consumer spending goes on software, that is games bought separately for consoles, Micro soft distributes its console at a price lower than the production cost in the hope that the loss will be regained through the sale of games. The profit margin on games is so substantial that each console sold only needs to be accompanied with 3 games before a profit is made. This larger production cost for Microsoft is due to superior technology and innovation.

Sony Playstation has been the clear market leader in consoles since 1996, was replaced in November 2000 by Playstation 2 (PS2). In 2001 Nintendo’s latest console the GameCube was launched a full 18 months after the PS2, the other console Microsoft’s X-Box was launched at the same time as Nintendo’s GameCube. These new generation of consoles have had an effect on the PC games...