Video Games - The Video Game Industry: Formation, Present State, and Future - page 27

revenues, whereas the game developer market provides third-party titles for
the console. A complex ecosystem of game console economies is based on
the symbiotic relationship between console manufacturers and third-party
developers/publishers. It can be characterized as symbiotic, but defi nitely
not symmetrical. The console manufacturers propagate their “technological
medium vision” to third-party publishers/developers through conventional
marketing, PR and communication but also a certain level of strong-arm-
ing of (third-party) game developers/publishers. Console manufacturers act
as gatekeepers and enforce many technical, artistic and business-related
conditions on third-party publishers/developers.
3) Game console manufacturers establish their business/media/technology
platforms. The video game console is manufactured, distributed, marketed,
sold and supported. For every console generation market size, revenues and
profi ts as a whole have increased signifi cantly. In order to recoup investment
as quickly as possible console manufacturers fi nd the most receptive target
market(s), usually the pioneering early adopters who spread the word to a
la rger aud ience of l i ke -m i nded (yet le ss devoted) consu mers. T h is t a rget g roup
is constituted by hardcore gamers because it is extremely infl uential, reliant,
quite sizeable and consequently also “bankable”. It has boosted the industry
since the early 1990s. Despite “cool” cutting-edge lifestyle-oriented commu-
nication aesthetics, there is still extensive use of “hi-tech marketing” where,
e.g. RAM, terafl ops, CPU speeds, HDMI ports, etc., are used extensively as
selling points in market communications. This requires high technological
profi ciency well beyond the average mainstream consumer, thus appealing
even more to the technologically competent hardcore gamer subculture.
4) Game publishers select target audience and marketing strategies. The
console platform formats the game medium development with require-
ments, guidelines, platform marketing and technological specifi cations,
which creates boundaries for the relevant marketing space, thus limiting
possibilities of game publishers. Third-party publishers arrive in an arena
with a selected audience and predefi ned sets of tools and expectations.
There is room for (marketing) innovation, but usually the wisest option is
to target the same audience as the console manufacturer.
5) Game publishers invest in game development. There is defi nitely a path-
dependent mentality of if it ain't broke, don't try to fi x it within the game
industry. Why change a “winning concept” that has successfully been based
on hardcore segments for several decades? It should be stressed that there
are more nuances to the marketing strategies than merely the hardcore
gamer, e.g. genre formatting. Game publishers have established a handful
of commercially successful, yet highly competitive, genres as mentioned in
the previous segment. The content/investment/portfolio strategies of game