Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
ChapTeR 10
Distribution and
marketing
Distribution for games has
expanded from the early forms of arcades to
home computer systems to extremely successful console systems. Games
run on numerous platforms.
Add to that the ever-increasing handheld markets, with laptops that have
extensive battery life (great for long flights) and higher-powered cell phones
that play hundreds of games with better, faster graphics and larger display
screens, and the gaming industry currently has many different platforms for
which to create games.
Gaming has grown so dramatically, surpassing even the sales of feature films,
that marketing for them has also increased. Not only do the manufacturers of
games recognize the massive revenue coming in from sales, but advertisers have
also embraced this medium as a genuine avenue for advertising other products.
Clever marketing people have looked at all the methods people can use to
access and play games. They have explored and exploited numerous schemes
for getting their products in front of consumers, both to sell the games
themselves and to use them to help market other products. As technology
continues to provide more methods for distributing games, advertising is
expected to keep pace with that growth.
platforms
Online
Using games for marketing
Marketing of games
platforms
In a nutshell, a
platform
is the electronic system used to play a game. Home
computers like the Mac and PC are platforms, and dedicated consoles like the
Wii and Xbox are platforms that play games. There are numerous online ave-
nues and, of course, the expanding markets for mobile and handheld devices.
