1

National Law University, Jodhpur

MARKETING MANAGEMENT
AREA STUDY OF THE COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES WITH REFERENCE TO
THE GAMING INDUSTRY

Submitted to:
Mrs. Archi Mathur Associate Professor & Assistant Dean Faculty of Management Studies

Submitted by:
Akash Paul Lakra Roll No.766 B.B.A(Hons),LL.B. (Hons.)

(Project towards fulfilment of the assessment in the subject of Marketing Management)

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGMENT ................................................................................................................. 4 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................................ 5 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................ 6 INTRODUCTION: THE GLOBAL GAMING MARKET .......................................................................... 9 THE GROWTH OF THE GAMING INDUSTRY IN THE 2000S ....................................................... 10 SOME OF THE LEADING PLAYERS IN THE COMPETITION:- ................................................. 10 UNDERSTANDING THE INDUSTRY AND MARKET CONCEPT OF COMPETITION ............................ 12 INDUSTRY CONCEPT .............................................................................................................. 12 MARKET CONCEPT ................................................................................................................ 12 Understanding the market concept of competition with respect to the gaming industry..... 12 ANALYSIS
AND

ASSESSMENT

OF LEADING

GAME PUBLISHERS & DEVELOPERS

AND THEIR

PRODUCTS ................................................................................................................................. 14

ELECTRONIC ARTS: ............................................................................................................... 14 PRIME PRODUCTS.............................................................................................................. 15 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD .......................................................................................................... 19 PRIME PRODUCTS.............................................................................................................. 19 Standalone entry of a New Firm, Majong ............................................................................ 21 COMPETITIVE MARKETING STRATEGIES EMPLOYED
BY THE

PROMINENT LEADERS

IN THE

GAMING INDUSTRY ................................................................................................................... 22 EA SPORTS VS KONAMI ................................................................................................. 22 IN CONTEXT TO ELECTRONIC ARTS .................................................................................. 22 IN CONTEXT TO KONAMI .................................................................................................. 23 ELECTRONIC ARTS MASS EFFECT 3 IN THE YEAR 2012 ....................................................... 24 1. 2. 3. Flank Defence Strategy ......................................................................................... 24 More Usage............................................................................................................ 24 New Uses ............................................................................................................... 25

3 BLIZZARDS WORLD
OF

WARCRAFT, THE MASSIVE MULTIPLAYER ONLINE ROLE PLAYING

GAME.................................................................................................................................... 26 1. 2. 3. Position Defence .................................................................................................... 26 Counter-Offensive Defence and Contraction Defence .......................................... 26 New Usage & New Users ...................................................................................... 27

ELECTRONIC ARTS: BATTLEFIELD 3 VS. ACTIVISION: CALL OF DUTY MODERN WARFARE 328 1. 2. 3. MOBILE DEFENCE STRATEGY USED BY ACTIVISION ............................................... 28 Position Defence Strategy Employed by Activision ............................................. 28 Frontal Attack on Activision ................................................................................. 29

CONCLUSION TO THE BATTLE BETWEEN CALL OF DUTY AND BATTLEFIELD ........................ 30 BATTLEFIELD 3 ................................................................................................................. 30 CALL OF DUTY MODERN WARFARE 3 .............................................................................. 30 DATA TABULATION IN CONTEXT TO THE TRENDS OF THE GAMING INDUSTRY ........................ 32 PERCENTAGE OF HOUSEHOLDS THAT PLAY VIDEO GAMES AND THE AVERAGE GAME PLAYER AGE ...................................................................................................................................... 32 CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................. 40 In Context to Competition ................................................................................................... 40 In context to data tabulation ................................................................................................. 40

Annexure: Questionnaire

4 ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Though we are obliged to many of our friends and relatives but would like to give special thanks to some of those who really helped us prepare and present this project the way it is. First and foremost we would like to thank our teacher Dr. Archi Mathur who greatly helped us in choosing this topic and also boosted our morale wherever and whenever required. Secondly we would like to thank our University, National Law University, Jodhpur, for the infrastructural and allied support services without which making this project would have proved to be really difficult. Last but not the least we would like to thank our parents who have provided us with all the material, psychological and spiritual support without which the completion of this project would never have been possible.

Akash Paul Lakra Roll no, 766, IV Semester, BBA.(Hons.) LLB. .(Hons.)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Today the Interactive Entertainment Industry, popularly known as the Gaming Industry has so progressed that it has major impact on the economy through the sales of major systems and games. The project tends to show the changes which have taken place through the years. The project focuses around how the big names in the Interactive Entertainment industry have made it the greatest entertainment of all time. What seemed a curiosity in the beginning, curiously became the $65 Billion Dollar Industry The project makes us understand the Concept of Market Competition as well as understanding the different classes of competitors with respect to the Gaming Industry. The data tabulation chapters helps explain the tends of the gaming industry with respect to age, gender, sales, and even in context to the movie industry which is the second most largest entertainment industry after the gaming industry. The data tabulations also helps us understand the various tends in the gaming market with respect to 1. Percentage of Households that play video games and the Average Game Player Age 2. Frequency of Video Games played by gender. 3. Comparison of the sales of US computer sales unit vs. game unit 4. The video game growth in years of 1996~2008 5. The market segment of the different genres of the gaming industry 6. The comparison of sales revenue generated by games with movies in the years of 2007~2010

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The Methodology that shall be followed for the project will be descriptive. The approach towards this research shall be both qualitative and quantitative. This type of research is also a grouping that includes many particular research methodologies and procedures, such as observations, surveys, self-reports, and tests. The four parameters of research will help us understand how descriptive research in general is similar to, and different from, other types of research. Unlike qualitative research, descriptive research may be more analytic. It often focuses on a particular variable or factor. Finally, like qualitative research, descriptive research aims to gather data without any manipulation of the research context. In other words, descriptive research is also low on the "control or manipulation of research context" scale. It is non-intrusive and deals with naturally occurring phenomena. In addition, the data collection procedures used in descriptive research may be very explicit. Some observation instruments, for example, employ highly refined categories of behaviour and yield quantitative (numerical) data. Descriptive research may focus on individual subjects and go into great depth and detail in describing them. Individual variation is not only allowed for but studied. This approach is called a case-study. The theoretical and statistical data will be gathered from newspapers, journals and the internet. The information with the data gathered through Primary and secondary means will be then analysed and scrutinized to come to the desired result. The data will provided with a questionnaire

7 QUESTIONNAIRES A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents, although they are often designed for statistical analysis of the responses. A distinction can be made between questionnaires with questions that measure separate variables, and questionnaires with questions that are aggregated into either a scale or index. We would be using a mixed questionnaire in this project.

8 OBJECTIVES 1) Study of Competitive Marketing Strategies in different areas of the Gaming Industry. 2) Study of Competitive Marketing Strategies employed by Successful game developers. I would be dealing the first two objectives together as I would identify the key product lines of the gaming industry and the leading players and how they use the competitive marketing strategies to be successful 3) Setting up data tabulation to determine and understand the trends of the gaming industry

9 CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION: THE GLOBAL GAMING MARKET

During the early years of gaming, making profit was easy. Development Costs were minimal as the games could be developed by a single programmer or a team of programmers. Developers could release several titles a years. Many early game publishers started from this economic climate, such as Origin Systems, Sierra Entertainment, Capcom, Activision and Electronic Arts. After the initial crash of the video game market in the early 1980s, the large media firms stayed away from the gaming industry but this could not last forever Today the Gaming Industry has so progressed that it has major impact on the economy through the sales of major systems and games. A very good example is Call of Duty: Black Ops, which grabbed in over USD $ 650 million of sales in the game's first five days, which set a five-day global record for a movie, book or videogame. Activisions Call of Duty hit $1 Billion Milestone in Just 16 Days, beating the feature film "Avatar," which reached the $1 billion milestone in 17 days.1 The Interactive Entertainment Industry, popularly known as the video game industry or the gaming industry is a segment of the worldwide economy that is involved with the development, marketing and sales of video games. What some considered a curiosity in the Mid 1970s, the gaming industry has flourished into a full grown mainstream industry. The gaming industry is estimated to grow by more than 100 per cent in the ten years from 2002-2011. The gaming industry which contributed 21.88 billion dollars in the global market in the year 2002 is now contributing over 48.88 billion dollars in the current global market.2

PR Newswire, United Business Media, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Hits $1 Billion Milestone in Just 16 Days. 2 PriceWaterCoopers Actuarial on Global Video Game Market

10 THE GROWTH OF THE GAMING INDUSTRY IN THE 2000S

In an Annual Media Briefing Doug Lowenstein, the founder and former President of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) said "The U.S game industry was worth $10.3 billion in 2004, but it generated a further $7.7 billion in economic value," he said. "Even that figure under-estimates the impact the game industry has on improving the performance of industry." In the year 2011 around 45,000 reporters, industry types and analysts had converge on Los Angeles for the E3 conference, which sprawled across a space the size of eight U.S. football fields. This marquee event for the video game industry running June 7-9 came as the industry tried to cope with the rapid growth of online and mobile gaming. Revenue forecast of 2011 was $65 Billion, $2.3 Billion up from the $62.7 in 2010.3 SOME OF THE LEADING PLAYERS IN THE COMPETITION:1. Activision Blizzard Annual revenue: $4.8 billion Top franchises: Call of Duty, World of Warcraft 2. Electronic Arts Inc. Annual revenue: $3.8 billion Top franchises: Battlefield, Mass Effect, Fifa series 3. Take-Two Interactive Software Annual revenue: $1.13 billion Top franchises: Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption Ubisoft Annual revenue: 1.03 billion euros
3

Liana B. Baker Fact box: A look at the $65 billion video games industry Reuters

11 Top franchises: Assassin's Creed, Prince of Persia, Tom Clancy titles such as Splinter Cell What seemed a curiosity, curiously became the $65 Billion Dollar Industry

12 CHAPTER II

UNDERSTANDING THE INDUSTRY AND MARKET CONCEPT OF COMPETITION

INDUSTRY CONCEPT An industry is a group of firms that offer a product or a class of products that are close substitutes for one another. Industry are classified according to the number of sellers, degree of product differentiation; presence or absence of entry mobility, and exit barriers; cost structure degree of vertical integration; and the degree of globalization.

MARKET CONCEPT In addition to the industry approach, identification of competitors could be done using the market approach. The competition is amongst companies that satisfy the same customer needs. The market concept discloses much broader set of actual and potential competitors.

Understanding the market concept of competition with respect to the gaming industry In the Gaming industry the outlook is quite different to what people think, the sales of a game of one particular genre do not affect much, the sales of a game of another genre. If we have to take a very correct example in context to the gaming industry, it would be the sales of Activisions Call of Duty, Modern Warfare 3 and Bethesdas Elder Scrolls IV: Skyrim. They both are games but are very different at the same time; Call of Duty is one of the First Person Shooter Games while Skyrim is a single player Role Playing Game. The point is that they both topped the European charts during their time of release in the month of November 2011. The sales of the products did not affect each other, much.

13 However it is to be noted that the bigger share in the market segment in the Interactive Entertainment Industry comprises of people who play FPS games rather than role playing games. Competition is explicit and stiff when it comes to games of the same genre releasing on similar platforms.

14 CHAPTER III

ANALYSIS AND ASSESSMENT OF LEADING GAME PUBLISHERS & DEVELOPERS

AND THEIR PRODUCTS

UNDERSTANDING THE PRODUCT MIX

Before comparing the competitive Strategies employed by the Leaders, the Challengers, and the Followers of the Interactive Entertainment Industry we must take our time to access, and analyse them. ELECTRONIC ARTS: The famous and the almighty American developer, marketer, publisher and distributer was incorporated on 28th May 1982 by Trip Hawkins. The company was also a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was distinguished for promoting designers and programmers responsible for its games. EA is currently the No. 1 publisher in Western markets with a 16% segment share, and the second-largest social games company on Facebook. EA was a home computing game publisher originally but in the late 1980s, the company began developing games in-house and supported consoles by the early 1990s. EA later grew via acquisition of several successful developers. By the early 2000s, EA had become one of the world's largest third-party publishers. On May 4, 2011, EA reported $3.8 billion in revenues for the fiscal year ending March 2011, and on January 13, 2012, EA announced that it had exceeded $1 billion in digital revenue during the previous calendar year.4

Williams, M.H. "EA Reshuffles After $1 Billion in Digital Year" Industry Gamers

15 PRIME PRODUCTS In the sports interactive product line the product of EA I would be dealing with would be 1. FIFA

Also known as FIFA Football or FIFA Soccer is a series of association football video games, released annually by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports label. When EA released its first game titles, there was no competition as such until in 2000 when Konami released its own Soccer series Pro Evolution Soccer. What differentiated EAs product from the rest of the herd was that series contained many exclusively-licenced leagues including league and teams from around the world, including the English Premier League and Football League, Italian Serie A, Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga, French Ligue 1, Dutch Eredivisie, Mexican Primera Divisin, American Major League Soccer, South Korean K-League and Australian Hyundai A-League, allowing the use of real leagues, clubs, and player names and likenesses within the games. And has all the major Tournaments of the world, offering users a wide variety of options to choose from. Even in means of Distribution, EA never held back as of 2011, the FIFA franchise has been localized into 18 languages and available in 51 countries. The series has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling video game franchises.5 Also FIFA 12 holds the record for the "fastest selling sports game ever" with over 3.2 million games sold and over $186 million generated at retail in its first week of release.6 Fifa is also available in all the gaming platforms. Pricing was done in accordance to other games in the same genre.

5 6

Business Wire, EA SPORTS FIFA Soccer Franchise Sales Top 100 Million Units Lifetime Sinclair, Brendan, "Publisher estimates football simulation's sell-through as "the most successful launch in EA Sports history," calls it the biggest launch of 2011 so far." GameSpot, CBS Interactive

16 The second product line I would be dealing with would be Single player Role playing game and the product I have analysed is the latest released game Mass Effect 3 2. MASS EFFECT

Mass Effect is a series of sci-fi action role-playing video games developed by the Canadian company Bio-Ware and released for the Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows and, from the second instalment, for the PlayStation 3 and published by EA. Mass Effect had always been a critical success. Both games have received critical commendation for their storyline, characters, romances, voice acting, choices, tolerance of diversity, and the depth of the galaxy. Video game website GamesRadar called Mass Effect the best new franchise of the generation, saying that the galaxy was so well-constructed that it felt like a decades-old franchise and that it represented "a high-water mark for video games as a story-telling medium.7 Presently Mass Effect 3 relied heavily on viral marketing using an internal channel called Bio-Ware Pulse, weekly videos were posted on the company's official website and YouTube offering fans a preview of upcoming content. The term "viral marketing" has also been used pejoratively to refer to stealth marketing campaignsthe unscrupulous use of astroturfing online combined with undermarket advertising in shopping centers to create the impression of spontaneous word of mouth enthusiasm. What attracts the buyers is the amount of effort developer put into the continuity of the series keeping in mind that they also need to attract new users as well. Mass Effect 3 was released in multiple editions. Alongside the regular edition, there would also be a collector's edition and a digital deluxe edition, each of which will include bonus content and unlockable items; most

GamesRadar Top 7 Best New Franchises of this Generation

17 notably, four exclusive weapons found in the N7 Arsenal Pack.8 Each of the editions would be differently priced, regular being the basic pricing level. next I would be dealing with is the FPS product line with EAs product known as BBC 3. Battlefield Bad Company

The Battlefield franchise is a series of First Person Shooting video games that started with the Windows/Mac game Battlefield 1942. The series is developed by the Swedish company EA Digital Illusions CE, and published by Electronic Arts. Currently EAs Battlefield is most prominent of the all challengers, globally in the world of First Person Shooting after Activisions Call of Duty. Battlefield 3 sold 5 million copies in its first week of release. 9 Battlefield 3 features the combined arms battles that made the series popular across single-player, co-operative and multiplayer modes EA CEO John Ricci tiello stated that Battlefield 3 is aimed at competing with the Call of Duty series. "This November, we're launching Battlefield 3. It's going up against the next Call of Duty, which is presently the #1 game in the game industry," he said, "A game that last year did $400 million in revenue on day one. Battlefield 3 is designed to take that game down." EA planned on spending over $100 million on a marketing campaign for Battlefield 3.10 Two days after launch, EA CEO John Riccitiello announced via a conference call to investors that Battlefield 3 has already shipped 10 million units within a week of release, with 3 million of those being pre-orders. 11 Electronic Arts stated that the title sold 5 million units within the first week of availability, easily becoming its fastest-selling game beating FIFA 12 the same year. After a month when EAs chief financial officer Eric Brown announced that Battlefield 3 had sold 8 million copies and that the publisher has shipped 12 million copies of the game to
8

IGN, E3 2011: Mass Effect 3 N7 Collector's Edition Announced, N7 Arsenal Pack exclusive to this edition XBOX 360, 6th June 2011 9 PCMag, "EA Sells 5 Million Copies of 'Battlefield 3' in a Week" 31st October 2011 10 IGN Entertainment ,EA: Battlefield 3 Designed to Take Down Call of Duty 6th April 2011 11 James Hyde, "Battlefield 3 ships 10 million copies" December 14th, 2011

18 retailers, 2 million more than it shipped for launch week. Peter Moore, the Chief Operating Officer of EA, insisted that Battlefield 3 had successfully captured a slice of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3s market share.12

12

Ben Parfitt, EA: Battlefield 3 stole market share from Modern Warfare 3

19 ACTIVISION BLIZZARD

Activision Blizzard Inc. which was formerly only Activision, Inc. is the American holding company for Activision and Blizzard Entertainment. The company is majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA and was created through the merger of Activision and Vivendi Games, announced on December 2, 2007 and the merger was worth $18.8 billion USD.13 The company believed that the merging of the two companies would create "the world's largest and most subtle pure-play video game publisher" It believes that it is the only publisher that has "leading market positions across all categories" of the video game industry. In the first three quarters of 2010, Activision Blizzard's revenue stood at over $3 billion. In 2009 it generated $2.7 billion during the same period. It has generated a $651 million profit, up from the $399 million in the same period in 2009.14

PRIME PRODUCTS

1. Call of Duty Series

Call of Duty is a first-person video game series franchise. The games started off to be released on PCs then eventually as the series progressed they covered mostly all gaming platforms. By November 27, 2009, Call of Duty games had sold 55 million copies for $3 billion in revenue. "Call of Duty has become one of the greatest entertainment franchises of all time," said Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard.15

13 14

Rory Cellan-Jones, Video game giants in $18bn merger BBC News, 2nd December 2007 Don Reisinger, Activision Blizzard sees '10 as its 'most profitable CNET News, 5th November 2010 15 Tim Ingham, Call Of Duty series tops 55 million sales MCV, 27th November 2009

20 Activision is so prominent in its share of the market that as of February 9, 2012 there are 40 million monthly active players across all of the Call of Duty titles, with 7 million Call of Duty: Elite users and 1.5 million paying annual members. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 the latest addition to the series is the number 1 title in the world of First Person Shooting games and is constantly in run with Electronic Arts Battlefield Within 24 hours of being released, the game sold 6.5 million copies in the US and UK alone and grossed $400 million, making it the biggest entertainment launch of all time. 16 Modern Warfare 3 was released in two different retail versions across the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms: Standard and Hardened.

2. World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) by Blizzard Entertainment. Blizzard currently holds the leading position in the domain of MMORPGs. World of Warcraft is currently the world's most-subscribed MMORPG, and holds the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG by subscribers. World of Warcraft requires a subscription fee to be paid to allow continued play, with options to pay in one month, three month, or six month blocks, although timecards of varying length are available both online and from traditional retailers. In 2010 it was announced in an interview that the revenue generated from World of Warcraft its third-quarter revenue grew to $745 million, up from $703 million it posted during the same period in 2009.17

16

Keza Macdonald, "Modern Warfare 3 Has Biggest Launch Of Anything Ever" IGN, 14th November 2011; Mike Rose, Modern Warfare 3 Sells 6.5M On Launch Day In North America, UK Gamasutra, 11th November 2011 17 Supra 14

21 Standalone entry of a New Firm, Majong A product that was spread through word of mouth, a product which was unknown and an unexplored area in the field of Interactive gaming industry Majong AB is a Swedish independent video game developer founded in May 2009 under the name Mojang Specifications by Markus Persson. The most well-known product of the game developer is Minecraft There is not much to say about the firm but way too much to say about Minecraft. Minecraft is a sandbox-building, focused on creativity and building, allowing players to build constructions out of textured cubes in a 3D world. Minecraft was released in its stilldevelopmental stage. Minecraft stood unique it its own. The basic pricing was set to 14.95, and Persson said that users who bought the game after this date would no longer be guaranteed to receive all future content free of charge as it "scared both the lawyers and the board." However, bug fixes and all updates leading up to and including the release would still be free. The question remains why Minecraft is successful even after Majong, not being a heavy, old player in the Interactive Gaming Industry Minecraft has been praised for the creative freedom it grants its players in-game, and for how dynamic the overall gameplay is,18 while PC Gamer listed Minecraft as the fourth-best game to play at work. In December 2010, Good Game selected Minecraft as their choice for "Best Downloadable Game of 2010" title. In terms of promoting the game, in September 2010, after an spontaneous "free to play" weekend, the game had a spike in sales of over 25,000 purchases in 24 hours. On January 12, 2011, Minecraft passed 1,000,000 purchases less than a month after reaching Beta. At the same time, the game had no publisher backing and has never been commercially advertised except through word of mouth. The general idea is that the reason behind the success was not Minecraft, but the idea of Minecraft.

18

Jim Rossignol, Building-block World", PC Gamer,UK

22 CHAPTER IV

COMPETITIVE MARKETING STRATEGIES EMPLOYED BY THE PROMINENT LEADERS IN THE GAMING INDUSTRY

Understanding the way of success EA SPORTS VS KONAMI

Electronic Arts FIFA may be the leading game in the series of soccer entertainment, but it also faces a tough challenge every year by Konamis Pro-Evolution Soccer. IN CONTEXT TO ELECTRONIC ARTS It is very clear that EA employs more than one strategy. 1. THE PRE-EMPTIVE STRATEGY If one has ever wondered why people prefer FIFA over Pro-Evolution Soccer (PES), one of the reasons would be that PES fails to provide fully licensed clubs to its users. The reason for this quite simple, EA holds monopoly when it comes to licensing major, its not question that the majority of the users would prefer playing with Real Player, Real Teams, and Real Clubs rather than anything else. EA tends to get the licensing rights of their games before Konami does, we do have to keep in mind that EA has a good financial status. 2. NEW USES New innovations, new methods and instalments of new features to attract new and existing users to buy the products is a key strategy employed by most market leaders in the Interactive Entertainment Industry. EA in the year of 2007 introduced a new feature to the list of game modes it already had, Be a Pro Mode. EA gave what people desired subconsciously, the ability to create their own player and grow the player to become a full-fledged professional, people experienced the new concept of

23 playing as a single player in a team of eleven members which they were controlling altogether. They also had a special be a pro camera called the pro cam to give people a unique experience.19 EAs new feature proved to be successful as it was rated 8/10 on average by most reviewers. 3. POSITION DEFENCE STRATEGY Lionel Messi, a name in the world of Soccer everyone knows, there is no need to give an introduction for such a superstar. Electronic Arts, has recently signed up the Barcelona Star to become the new face for EAs soccer franchise for the year 2012. EA is also supposed to join hands with the Lionel Messi Foundation to support the social cause of providing education and health care for children around the world. Building up the brand value of the already acclaimed soccer franchise, EA wants to build a superior brand power, making the brand almost impregnable.

IN CONTEXT TO KONAMI 1. FLANK ATTACK It is well known that FIFAs gameplay, the in game mechanics are far weak in comparison the Konamis PES, though majority of video game owners prefer FIFA due to licensing and brand issues faced by PES, the rest of the videos in their reviews and feedback have provided that PES offers better game mechanics than those of FIFA. The weak point of EA Sports FIFA is the game mechanics, which it tends to improve with every new title, however in relation to this, PES, has already tended to be very good with providing users with better gameplay and better graphics.

19

Joe Booth. Lead Producer FIFA 08, FIFA 08 PS3 and Xbox 360 developer blog #04, Be a Pro mode explained - plus video GamesRadar, 24th September, 2011

24 ELECTRONIC ARTS MASS EFFECT 3 IN THE YEAR 2012 Release date: 6th March 2012 The year of 2012 is one the toughest competition year in years for Role Playing Games and their Publishers and Developers.

With titles like Max Payne 3, Borderlands, Assassins Creed III, and the return of Diablo 3 after the year 2000 when Diablo 2 was released, this year Electronic Arts is supposed to face stiff competition as to who will have the biggest share of the market share. Electronic Arts never fails at setting up its defences, and at the same time attracting millions of old users and millions of new users with each title. Mass Effect 3 marks the final chapter in the Mass Effect trilogy of video games, completing the story of the earlier two titles. 1. Flank Defence Strategy Normally what EA used to do to attract new users to the series was, origin-story comics for new players to help them make quick decisions, this year EA has no such origin story comic. In order to understand the continuity of the story one has to rely on the previous titles. This was supposed to be very big step for EA as it would cut down the number of new users who know nothing of the story. This strategy is designed to pressure the flank of the enemy line so the flank turns inward. You make gains while the enemy line is in chaos. In doing so, you avoid a head-on confrontation with the main force. However, John Riccitiello, the chief executive of Electronic Arts At Wedbush Conference on Technology, Media & Telecommunication in New York made an estimate that Mass Effect 3 sold over 890,000 copies within the first day of its release in North-America which had met EAs expectations. 2. More Usage With 17 different endings provided by Bio-Ware, the developer of Mass Effect 3, every decision making has an impact to the ending EAs which has excessively increased the usage of the game.

25 With every decision impacting the outcome of the game, the game is bound to be played over and over again. Electronic Arts have said that every time the game would provide a whole new experience to the gamer. 3. New Uses Mass Effect 3 has a new 4 player co-op multiplayer mode. As reviews have said that the new mode is very well done and provides a whole new experience. The sales do reflect that the reviews are correct.

26 BLIZZARDS WORLD OF WARCRAFT, THE MASSIVE MULTIPLAYER ONLINE ROLE PLAYING GAME.

Understanding what competitive strategies does Blizzard Employ to beat its competitors and has the largest number of subscribers. 1. Position Defence Superior Brand Value has always played a role in WOWs success, WOW was released in the year 2004, it was universally praised by critics upon release, following a period of high anticipation before launch. The appearance of the game world was praised by critics. Most popular was the fact that a player could run from one end of the continent to the other without having to pause at a "loading screen" while part of the game is retrieved from storage. The environment was described as "Breath taking". Players found it difficult to become lost, and each area in the game world had a distinct look that blended from one to the next. Critics described the environment as "a careful blend of cartoon, fantasy art, and realism". World of Warcraft won several awards from critics upon release, including Editor's Choice awards. In addition, it won several annual awards from the media, being described as the best game in the role-playing and MMORPG genres In April 2008, World of Warcraft was estimated to hold 62 per cent of the MMORPG subscription market. Reason being the acclaimed success, the years in the mmorpg market and the brand value provided by Blizzard.

2. Counter-Offensive Defence and Contraction Defence With the problems faced by most mmorpg titles, the same was the case with WOW. The practice of amassing gold and in-game items for financial profit is frequently referred to as gold farming.

27 After Blizzard started offering free trial gameplay accounts, players noticed an increase in spam from bots advertising these services. Blizzard responded to this by adding additional anti-spam mechanics including whisper throttling and the report spam function. Additionally, trial accounts are prevented from speaking in the public chat channels (although they may speak to players within range or whisper to other players that have first whispered to them), participating in in-game trades, and using the Auction House and the mail feature, among other limitations. 3. New Usage & New Users Since the year 2007, with the first expansion, The Burning Crusade 2 more titles add up to the list of expansions provided by Blizzard as a means to attract new users as well exsiting users

28 ELECTRONIC ARTS: BATTLEFIELD 3 VS. ACTIVISION: CALL OF DUTY MODERN WARFARE 3

The stiffest competition in the whole of Interactive Entertainment Industry In the world of first person shooters, there are only two prominent rivals, Activision being the leader and Electronic Arts being the challenger. 1. MOBILE DEFENCE STRATEGY USED BY ACTIVISION Battlefield 3 was developed by EA Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts. It is a direct sequel to 2005's Battlefield 2, and the eleventh instalment in the Battlefield franchise. The game was released in North America on October 25, 2011 and in Europe on October 28, 2011 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360 While Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was developed by Infinity Ward and Sledgehammer Games, with Raven Software and published by Activision it was a direct sequel to 2009's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and the eighth Call of Duty instalment. The game was released on November 8, 2011 in North America on Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii, with a separate version for Nintendo DS developed by nSpace. It can be very clear from the above facts that Activision employ the Mobile Defence Strategy as it tried to stretch its domain over to new domain such as Nintendo DS and Wii platforms, it is Activisions most successful endeavour ever since Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2, in comparison to EAs Battlefield. 2. Position Defence Strategy Employed by Activision In order to hold it position as a superior brand over any other developer and publisher, Activision needed to show its power and involved building up a much superior brand. Activision employed 1. Jonah Hill the American actor, producer, screenwriter, and comedian, best known for his roles in Superbad, Knocked Up, Funny People, Get Him to the Greek, and Moneyball.

29 2. Sam Worthington, the Australian actor known for his starring roles in the feature films Avatar, Terminator Salvation, and Clash of the Titans. Worthington is also noted for his voice work as Alex Mason in the 2010 video game Call of Duty: Black Ops. For the first live action trailer for Activisions Call of Duty MW3. Activision used its vast financial power to make the promotion of Call of Duty even better. Now coming down to EA 3. Frontal Attack on Activision EA CEO John Riccitiello stated on 16th August that Battlefield 3 is aimed at competing with the Call of Duty series. "This November, we're launching Battlefield 3. It's going up against the next Call of Duty, which is presently the #1 game in the game industry," he said, "A game that last year did $400 million in revenue on day one. Battlefield 3 is designed to take that game down." EA planned on spending over $100 million on a marketing campaign for Battlefield 3. Electronic Arts also stated that Battlefield 3 is a "flat out superior" product to blockbuster first person shooter (FPS) Call of Duty. It is no question that Electronic Arts had launched Frontal attack on Activision After one month, EA chief financial officer Eric Brown announced Battlefield 3 had sold 8 million copies, and that the publisher has shipped 12 million copies of the game to retailers, 2 million more than it shipped for launch week. Peter Moore, the high-profile COO of EA, insisted that Battlefield 3 successfully captured a slice of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3s market share.

30 CONCLUSION TO THE BATTLE BETWEEN CALL OF DUTY AND BATTLEFIELD

BATTLEFIELD 3

Battlefield 3 garnered 3 million pre-orders by the day of its release. It is unknown at present whether these figures are worldwide or just for the US. The preorder total makes it "the biggest first-person shooter launch in EA history", according to the publisher. Two days after launch, EA CEO John Riccitiello announced via a conference call to investors that Battlefield 3 has already shipped 10 million units within a week of release, with 3 million of those being pre-orders. Electronic Arts stated that the title sold 5 million units within the first week of availability, easily becoming its fastest-selling game, beating FIFA 12 record. After one month, EA chief financial officer Eric Brown announced Battlefield 3 had sold 8 million copies, and that the publisher has shipped 12 million copies of the game to retailers, 2 million more than it shipped for launch week. In Japan, Battlefield 3 had sold around 123,379 copies for the PS3 and 27,723 copies for the Xbox 360 when it was released. n the first week, the game had sold 18,792 copies for the PS3 for a total of 142,171 copies. The PS3 version later sold 8,094 copies for a total of 150,265 copies.

CALL OF DUTY MODERN WARFARE 3

Within 24 hours of going on sale, the game sold 6.5 million copies in the US and UK alone and grossed $400 million, making it the biggest entertainment launch of all time. Modern Warfare 3 went on to gross $1 billion throughout the world in 16 days of availability, beating Avatar's record of 17 days, according to Activision.

31 Modern Warfare 3 topped the UK video game sales chart in its first week, becoming the biggest video game launch in history by revenue. By November 21, 2011, the game remained the bestselling title in the United Kingdom, despite sales dropping by 87%.

32 CHAPTER V

DATA TABULATION IN CONTEXT TO THE TRENDS OF THE GAMING INDUSTRY

PERCENTAGE OF HOUSEHOLDS THAT PLAY VIDEO GAMES AND THE AVERAGE GAME PLAYER AGE

The statistics basically show that once a gamer is always a gamer. It is actually a saying, but gaming is addictive, the gaming industry feeds on this addiction and thus makes profit. 35 years of age is the average age of a gamer.

33

34

35

The data shows that the gaming industry is a growing industry, with every year there is increased number of sales due to addition of more and more users and the already existing users.

36

Rating done in accordance to the preferred age. The focus on development of more game games with Rating E is preferred by more by developers and publishers as it widens the scope of market. Though it is usually that the gaming industry more focuses itself towards making a Rated T product in order to attract massive numbers of gamers in that particular set and above and the publisher/developer wouldnt have to compromise with its product.

37

38

The Tabulation illustrates that the major share of market is held by the Action and shooter segment of the gaming market.

39

As the statistics clearly confirm that the major contender in the field of Interactive Entertainment Industry and the Entertainment Industry is clearly Activisions Call of Duty, as the former tabulation clearly showed us that the major market segment comprises of Action and Shooter games, the revenue generated by the games are clear examples of the success of investment of the game developers and publishers in this market segment. Competition is stiff but then again the profit is worth it.

40 CHAPTER VI

CONCLUSION
In Context to Competition What we have learnt from the project is that, with such stiff competition in the gaming industry, the leading firms resort to employment of more than just one Competitive Marketing Strategy. Clear examples to this can be easily identified such as 1. EA pre-emptive strategy of acquiring licences of all major clubs and tournament for the FIFA franchise. 2. EA cutting down the new feature that enabled new users to have access to the story of the sequels of the Mass Effect, a clear sign of Flank Defence Strategy. 3. EAs head to head competition with Activisions most famous title, Call of Duty using the frontal attack strategy. These are just some of the strategies of the many which has been clearly explained in the project. In context to data tabulation The data tabulations helps us understand the various tends in the gaming market with respect to 1. Percentage of Households that play video games and the Average Game Player Age 2. Frequency of Video Games played by gender. 3. Comparison of the sales of US computer sales unit vs. game unit 4. The video game growth in years of 1996~2008 5. The market segment of the different genres of the gaming industry 6. The comparison of sales revenue generated by games with movies in the years of 2007~2010 From the tabulation the conclusion which could be drawn is that 1. The average gamer is 35 years old. 2. More than one-third of gamers are women.

41 3. More than one in four gamers is over 50. 4. The average game purchaser is 40 years old. 5. Sixty-three per cent of parents believe games are a positive part of their childrens lives. 6. Sales of family entertainment video games more than doubled in 2007, making it the fastest growing segment of the video game market. 7. The gaming industry generates the maximum revenue in the entertainment business.

42 BIBLIOGRAPHY WEBSITE REFERENCES 1. Liana B. Baker Fact box: A look at the $65 billion video games industry Reuters .. 6 2. Williams, M.H. "EA Reshuffles After $1 Billion in Digital Year" Industry Gamers ... 10

REFERENCES 1. Ben Parfitt, EA: Battlefield 3 stole market share from Modern Warfare 3.............. 13 2. James Hyde, "Battlefield 3 ships 10 million copies" December 14th, 2011 ................. 13 3. PriceWaterCoopers Actuarial on Global Video Game Market ...................................... 5

NEWS WEBSITE 1. Business Wire, EA SPORTS FIFA Soccer Franchise Sales Top 100 Million Units Lifetime ...................................................................................................................... 11 2. Don Reisinger, Activision Blizzard sees '10 as its 'most profitable CNET News, 5th November 2010 ............................................................................................................ 14 3. PR Newswire, United Business Media, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Hits $1 Billion Milestone in Just 16 Days. ............................................................................... 5 4. Rory Cellan-Jones, Video game giants in $18bn merger BBC News, 2nd December 2007.............................................................................................................................. 14 5. Sinclair, Brendan, "Publisher estimates football simulation's sell-through as "the most successful launch in EA Sports history," calls it the biggest launch of 2011 so far." GameSpot, CBS Interactive ................................................................................. 11

43 6. Tim Ingham, Call Of Duty series tops 55 million sales MCV, 27th November 2009 ...................................................................................................................................... 14

7. GAMING WEBSITES

1. GamesRadar Top 7 Best New Franchises of this Generation ................................. 12 2. IGN Entertainment ,EA: Battlefield 3 Designed to Take Down Call of Duty 6th April 2011.............................................................................................................................. 13 3. IGN, E3 2011: Mass Effect 3 N7 Collector's Edition Announced, N7 Arsenal Pack exclusive to this edition XBOX 360, 6th June 2011 ................................................... 12 4. Jim Rossignol, Building-block World", PC Gamer,UK ............................................ 16 5. Joe Booth. Lead Producer FIFA 08, FIFA 08 PS3 and Xbox 360 developer blog #04, Be a Pro mode explained - plus video GamesRadar, 24th September, 2011 ............. 18 6. Keza Macdonald, "Modern Warfare 3 Has Biggest Launch Of Anything Ever" IGN, 14th November 2011..................................................................................................... 15 7. Mike Rose, Modern Warfare 3 Sells 6.5M On Launch Day In North America, UK Gamasutra, 11th November 2011 ................................................................................. 15 8. PCMag, "EA Sells 5 Million Copies of 'Battlefield 3' in a Week" 31st October 2011 .. 13

44 Annexure I QUESTIONNAIRE

1. What kind of game do you prefer?

1. First Person Shooter 2. Sports 3. Simulation 4. Action 5. Role playing 6. Massive multiplayer online games

Suggestion-

2. What gaming platform do you prefer?

1. PlayStation 3 2. XBOX 360 3. WII 4. Nintendo ds 5. PSP vita Suggestion-

45

3. What age group are you in?

1. Above 10~15 2. Above 15~19 3. Above 19

4. How many hours do you play each day

1. 2 2. 4 3. 5 4. Once a week

Suggestion-

5. What gender are you

1. Male 2. female Suggestion-

46 6. What platforms do you own?

1. PlayStation 3 2. XBOX 360 3. WII 4. Nintendo ds 5. PSP vita Suggestion-

7. How much do prefer to spend on a game?

1. 10$ 2. 30$ 3. 50$ Suggestion-

8. How much do you actually spend on a game?

1. 10$ 2. 30$ 3. 50$ Suggestion9. What do you like most about a game?

4. Story 5. Gameplay 6. Graphics Suggestion-