University of New York in Prague European Business Administration MARKETING ANALYSIS & CREATION OF ENTITLEMENT STRATEGY FOR THE VIDEOGAME INDUSTRY Miroslav Mareček 2012/2013 William Pattison I would like to thank my mentor, William Pattison, for his invaluable advice and guidance I needed to create this paper. I would also like to thank my family for supporting me during my studies. 1 Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................. 5 Introductory chapter ............................................................................................................... 6 Research Method ............................................................................................................... 9 Terminology ..................................................................................................................... 10 Franchise ...................................................................................................................... 10 Hardcore and Casual gamers ...................................................................................... 10 Mod, Modder ............................................................................................................... 11 Self-promotion capability ............................................................................................ 11 MMORPG .................................................................................................................... 12 xp ................................................................................................................................. 12 Market Analysis ................................................................................................................... 13 11 highest grossing games of all time .............................................................................. 13 World of Warcraft ........................................................................................................ 14 Call of Duty: Black Ops ............................................................................................... 15 Mario Kart Wii ............................................................................................................. 16 Grand Theft Auto 4 ...................................................................................................... 17 Wii Play ....................................................................................................................... 18 New Super Mario Bros. ............................................................................................... 18 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas ................................................................................... 19 Gran Turismo 3 ............................................................................................................ 20 Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 .................................................................................. 20 The Sims ...................................................................................................................... 21 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare .................................................................................. 21 Franchises originating from within the industry .............................................................. 23 Mario ............................................................................................................................ 24 Pokémon ...................................................................................................................... 25 Wii ................................................................................................................................ 25 The Sims ...................................................................................................................... 26 Grand Theft Auto ......................................................................................................... 26 Final Fantasy ................................................................................................................ 27 Call of Duty ................................................................................................................. 27 Free-to-play ...................................................................................................................... 28 World of Tanks ............................................................................................................. 29 League of Legends ....................................................................................................... 30 2 Expansion packs/DLCs .................................................................................................... 31 The Sims ...................................................................................................................... 31 Niching ............................................................................................................................. 32 Social Networks ............................................................................................................... 35 Farmville ...................................................................................................................... 35 User-created content ........................................................................................................ 38 Minecraft ...................................................................................................................... 38 One-time payment MMORPG ......................................................................................... 40 Guild Wars ................................................................................................................... 40 Electronic distribution ...................................................................................................... 42 Steam ........................................................................................................................... 43 Marketing approaches to dealing with piracy .................................................................. 45 The Minecraft solution ................................................................................................. 46 Paradox Interactive solution ........................................................................................ 46 Dwarf Fortress ............................................................................................................. 48 Amanda Palmer‘s career .............................................................................................. 49 Things to Avoid ................................................................................................................ 50 The Nokia N-Gage announcement .............................................................................. 50 Lair and the Sixaxis controller ..................................................................................... 52 The ―John Romero‘s about to make you his bitch‖ advertisements for Daikatana ..... 53 PSP for Christmas ........................................................................................................ 54 The Blast Processing .................................................................................................... 55 Marketing a videogame as one would a movie ............................................................ 56 Notable recent fast-growing products .............................................................................. 59 Angry Birds .................................................................................................................. 59 Best Practices ....................................................................................................................... 61 Pre – marketing ................................................................................................................ 61 Franchise ...................................................................................................................... 61 Design features and concepts used before ................................................................... 62 Differentiate ................................................................................................................. 62 Sort out where the synergies are .................................................................................. 63 Decide on a policy towards piracy ............................................................................... 65 Appoint an experienced professional to handle the marketing .................................... 66 Marketing ......................................................................................................................... 66 Develop and market expansion packs or future installments ...................................... 67 Monitor the game‘s image with the users and the public ............................................ 67 Analyze the data for future use .................................................................................... 68 3 Keep a free-to-play or MMORPG game up to date ..................................................... 68 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................... 69 Appendices ..........................................................................................................................