Case questions:
1. How might a SWOT analysis have helped Electronic Arts assess its slippage in the video-game market?
SWOT analysis allows a manager to capitalize on a business’s strengths, while avoiding threats and weakness. Electronic Arts could have prevented Activision Blizzard from acquiring some of its market share by using the SWOT analysis to detect the company’s own internal flaws. Some of EA’s weaknesses included: conflicts between managers and developers, the practice of a predictable and counterproductive strategy of game acquisition and homogenization of future franchises, and an overall lack of imagination within the brand. All of these negative traits might have been identified and modified if management had based on a SWOT
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analysis. 2. How might Porter's generic strategies theory help to explain why Electronic Arts lost its leadership in the video-game market to Activision Blizzard? The first thing Kotick has done is attempt to create a unique perception of its brand, separating it from competitors through the overall quality of its products or services. So Activision Blizzard most certainly set itself apart as a video game design/manufacturing firm, by highlighting and enhancing a specific set of the company’s proven franchises, and by offering customers an interactive, subscription based gaming service. Besides, Kotick developed a unique financial approach that included the overall cost strategy, as he decided to allow each of his game design studios to compose their own financial statements and to manage their own, in-house profits and losses. CEO Kotick applied “focus strategy” at Activision Blizzard, when he targeted gamers in specific genres. Many video game enthusiasts are vehement about their relationship with specific designers, and Kotick inadvertently brought those fans on-board with this indirect focus strategy. 3. How would you use the Miles and Snow typology theory to advise Activision Blizzard on the best way to maintain its leadership in the video-game market? Activision Blizzard must continue to explore the horizon of what is possible for its developers.
By producing familiar fan-favorites while constantly testing new ground; the company will enjoy brand recognition of its innovative products, but those games will also need to overshadow the competition if Activision Blizzard is to remain the global king of video games.
4. If you ran a small video-game start-up, what would be your strategy for competing with EA and Activision Blizzard?
I would begin by performing extensive marketing research. By creating a perceptual map, I could draw up a vivid picture of the industry landscape, developing a better understanding of existing competitors’ positions in the marketplace. Overall, my firm would follow the analyzer strategy, pursuing tight accounting and financial controls, efficient production, and creativity along with low costs. By using this method, I might have a chance as a new market entry, up against the towering giants who currently own the industry.
5. If you're a video-game player, what aspects of Activision's strategy have led to your playing more (or fewer) of its games? If you're not a video-game player, what aspects of Activision Blizzard's strategy might induce you to try a few of its
games? Although I don’t have the time for video games, I do have a profound respect for Activision’s strategy, and its CEO Robert Kotick. By creating differences his organization from its main competitor, in areas of business-to-business partnership, strategic market segmentation, and gamer culture, Kotick succeeding in making Activision Blizzard the most profitable game developer on the planet.
The SWOT analysis: The study of the firm's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats called SWOT analysis, a key step in flushing out known performance issues that are important to the growth of the organization addressed in the corporation strategic plan. The issues identified in the SWOT analysis help leadership to come up with a plan and strategy to achieve the overall mission of the company (Strategic Planning, n, d). Target Corporation is one of the largest public retailing company in the US having more than 1700 stores serving guests nationwide. Target group and its brand position are evaluated in the market using SWOT analysis.--
During the early 1980s, Atari was the number one video game company in America. Atari had prophesized that they would turn an extreme profit during the time between 1980 and 1985. When Steven Spielberg came to Atari in July of 1982 asking to make a game version of his famous movie E.T., Atari promised him millions of dollars in royalties—even if the game failed—and that they could make the game by September of that year—an impossible deadline. At Christmas, 1982, E.T. The Game released. By the end of 1983, Atari had lost over $500 million and Warner Bros. sold Atari that year—leaving many thinking it was due to E.T.’s commercial failure. It’s rumored that E.T. The Game was so horrible that Atari took all the returned copies of the game and dumped them in a landfill in the New Mexico desert. Obviously, cause for a mass game “burial”. (Kent, 2001)
The case study highlighted that the new game Wii introduced by the company had the ability to attract individuals considered non-gamers or casual gamers. The Wii was not as powerful or technologically advanced as the Xbox 360 and the PS3, but its success lies in its ability to provide a new means of playing video games. The innovative design of the Wii’s controller, which had built in motion sensors, created a whole new gaming experience for users - on...
Glazer, S. (2006, November 10). Video Games. CQ Researcher, 16, 937-960. Retrieved February 11, 2010, from CQ Researcher Online
The definition of SWOT analysis is comprehensively summaries the internal and external conditions, critical evaluate advantages and disadvantages of organization, facing the opportunities and threats, in order to the combination of company 's strategy and internal resources and external environment (Yuan, 2013). In contrast, SWOT analysis method is a descriptive model, because the enterprise strategy is often a typical uncertainty problem, the lack of adequate analysis and logic, and a SWOT analysis cannot provide the specifically, format of strategic advice (David,
"Business & Money." A History of Video Game Consoles. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. .
A SWOT analysis is a measure tool to summarize a company’s internal and external aspects. By measuring the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and looking for improving solutions by using the strengths and opportunities to improve on the weaknesses and take the necessary actions concerning any threats a company can survive in today’s world market.
The video game industry is a one hundred million dollar industry and like any large industry, it is resistant to change, especially when the problem isn’t obvious and affecting their bottom line (Harwell). Due to this, the audience I’d like to reach isn’t in the gaming industry at all. Instead, I want to
Alphabet Games changed strategy to overcome competitors in the market. Also the technology influence changes in strategic management. A latest technology which Alphabet games quickly realized the need for more than good looks to make great video games. Graphics must be compelling and engaging and fun. Video games have become more like life, the company has adopted the concept of the game worlds and must react in a realistic manner. This led to the development of the player created content. To help in improving the market ability and increase the number of customers. As new technologies are as a rule always acquainted with the business sector, pace is vital for staying focused and new markets must be spearheaded
Video games have come a long way. They have evolved from the simple game of Pong into a complex, multi-platform, multi-genre, multi-billion dollar industry.
There are both good and bad things about people being able to develop their own games without a lot of help. The developers could put a lot of time and effort into making the “Perfect Game” or barely put any effort and try to sell the g...
"Interest In Gaming Grows With Focus On Competitiveness, Engagement And Critical Thinking. (Cover Story)." Electronic Education Report 14.12 (2007): 1-3.
Video games might have started out as a very small market. But today, this market has grown even bigger than the movie or music industry. Each year, millions and millions games fly off store shelves. Grand Theft Auto V broke sales records of the fastest selling entertainment property ever. While this game and others such as Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Assassin’s Creed sell millions of copies every year, other games don’t sell so well and just sit in store shelves. So, why do gamers rush out to stores to buy some games and pass by others? The answer is not so simple as “good games sell and bad games don’t.” If this were the case, then a game like Persona 4, a critically acclaimed game, would have sold millions of units. While Call of Duty that gets mixed reviews from its fans each year, sells millions of units each year. There are many factors that go into the buying decisions of a gamer. Advertising, gaming reviews, and trends/popularity(how well known a game is and trends by popular people) all affect the buying decisions of gamers.
In the present time, video games make up a large part of many country’s cultures. Since the first video games produced on room-sized computers back in 19471, just what kind of things caused video games to evolve into the enormous industry of the 21st century? The advancement in video games can be largely attributed to improvements in technology, precedents set by certain integral video game companies, but was also set back by a crash in the market in 1983.
To illustrate the industry of games as it currently stands, the infographic denotes the different industry players in relation to each other and the channels through which players access media. The graphic shows a cross-section of a sphere that allows us to see inside the “gaming sphere.” A spherical shape was chosen to