Answer 1:

These are the factors which can be associated with Sony Eyetoy:
1. Sony Eyetoy comes with a revolutionary and technically advanced
technology which enhances the user experience along with making
customers go awe about it.
2. The product has a mass appeal and was applicable and relevant to a
broader audience despite the kind of gamers he/she is.

Now, let’s have a look at the issues/problems related with Sony Eyetoy:
1. Targeting part of STP is not properly done and hance doesn’t clearly
target the audience
2. The type of games available with Sony Eyetoy are not particularly
interested for most of its users.
3. The product is a gamble. Either it could earn huge revenues or it can fail
outright.

Talking from the consumer point of view, the product has been positioned as
an entertainment product which has the capability to promote social gaming
unlike a traditional game. Also the product was positioned in a way to reach
larger audience.
The difference between Sony Eyetoy and other traditional games become
more relevant because most of the games are either standalone products or
come as a part of something else, eyetoy is different. Like the very famous
Sony PlayStation, Eyetoy has the potential to become a product line of its own.
But in order to become a product line of its own, first reach to larger audience
is required which then could be changed by developing new games targeting
different audiences.

SCEE was hoping for Groove to become as successful as Eyetoy. Even though
the retailers have shown a good support and ordered in quantities, the sell
through rate was only 1,00,000 units. The product could not live upto the
expectations. Reasons for this are:
 1. The product was not marketed properly. They did not bother to explain
about the game and how it was formed.
2. They didn’t even spend enough on advertising. Rather they were
banking on the success of Eyetoy for the Groove.
3. Moreover, Groove was not bundled and sold as a standalone game for
40 Euros. Their previous product was for 60 euros with 12 minigames.

Sony eyetoy can be seen as different form the other games launched by Sony.
Sony generally introduces technological advanced and sophisticated products
and games which are generally funny games. Correct launching of product is
the main reason for its success.
But before the big launch, their challenge was to educate the people about
how they did it, why they did it, why they want to use it, etc.
The product was bundled at 60 Euros along with the camera. SCEE ran a 5
million Euros marketing campaign where it started with ‘How to Eyetoy’ video.
We can conclude that the launch strategy has been a successful one as the
company could sell 2.5 million units in Europe alone.
Answer 2:
In Exhibit 2, it is clearly shown that gaming industry is second highest in terms
of revenue and highest in operating revenues in 2003. This implies that Gaming
industry was most developed and potent industry.
Firstly, let’s look at the various aspects of gaming industry-
In 2003, the top 50 games garnered an overall sale of over 2,50,000 units in US.
39 console games sold more than 50,000 units and 9 console games sold more
than 1 million units. Thus, the relevance of size can be seen in gaming industry
which suggests that, one need to back project with potential to reach.
It is common for SCEE to spend over Euro 5 million on the development of a
game and over Euro 10 million on particularly high profile games such as “The
Gateway”. First in order to evaluate sonyeyetoy needed to understand the
management long term focus of Sonyeyetoy.
If Sony eyetoy is viewed as a game then as for other high games, sony needs to
spend Euro 5 million on development and Euro 10 million on marlating. But if
the Sony Eye Toy is views as platform company needs o increase the spend on
development to tune of Euro 10 million and Euro 15 million for marketing.
Once a platform is developed, like high profile games on Sony Eye Toy will also
have high profile games and they will needs to spend Euro 5 million on
development and Euro 10 million. From the company’s pipeline, Sony Eye Toy
as platform therefore it needs to have within Sony’s Wider marketing category.

From Exhibit 10, if we consider SCFE territories consoles sold were 15,200,000
units from march. If we consider average sales per month then during the
company sold 380,000 units per month. After all of plat from July 2003 to Jan
2004, consoles were sold. On average, 843,658 units were sold. This implies
launch of play has increased the sale of PS2.
EyeToy’s product development and marketing chatting Sony Eye is a
technologically sophisticated product is positioned to target the broader
audience. Since, the product launched is a technologically advanced, the
customers would be clueless about the product. Third, developers also don’t
immediately jump in creating games, they wait and decide what to do. In sony,
teams of size 50 are allotted to design and they were responsible for the
development of plan. Since Eyetoy is a new product, there are not much
games compatible in the market and third party developers wait to examine
whether this is a trend or a fad and then make a decision.
In order to strengthen Sony EyeToy’s position in the market, there is a huge
pressure on the game development team to develop new, exciting games for
the EyeToy technology. Developing a game typically takes 3 to 4 years. So the
major challenges in front of the game developers are:
1. Develop the game in time
2. Budget allotment for the games
EyeToy’s Marketing challenges are:
Initial games developed for Sony EyeToy play are funny, simpler mini
games. With the success of the EyeToy Play, both in-house developers and
third party developers will look to develop more complex games. In order for
these products to be successful, marketing strategy for each one of the
products has to be unique and carefully implemented. They also need to target
different consumer segments with each product. Once the target audience is
decided, they also need to decide on the product launch and pricing decision
for each game. Some of the key marketing challenges are:
1. Choosing a better marketing campaign
2. Allocating marketing budget
3. Make a pricing decision on each product
4. Whether to bundle the product or not (EyeToy+PS2, EyeToy+play or sell
EyeToy separately)
5. Deciding on where to launch the product first