Marketing Gaming Industry

During recession people were forced to make changes in their day to day activities and to their lifestyles. Those changes are related not only to jobs and careers but also to leisure and entertainment. Gaming industry is one of the best examples of how people changed their habits and lifestyle. Psychographic analysis of consumer lifestyle helps to divide the market into segments.

Reaching the 90's, no one expected that the game's world will affect people's lifestyle that much. One of the biggest gaming platforms in those years was Atari and Amiga. After few years Sony introduced first successful gaming console Play station 1 which pushed developers to create new substitutes like: Sega, Xbox, and Wii. To stand out in the market, gaming companies continue to improve new products using modern technology. New ideas help them to reach the particular group of consumers using market segmentation.

Market segmentation allows understanding the different behavior patterns of variety group of customers and developing strategy to target the selected segments based on their lifestyles. In the past games were targeted mostly to young people, nowadays there is much wider group of potential customers. "Mintel's consumer research confirms that motion-based controllers appeal more to the mass-market than to committed games." From the kid 6 years old, to 60 years old grandmother who is having the Farm on Facebook. That is why companies, through market segmentation are able to recognize similar requirements of potential group of customers. The reason why size of the market segment has increased is easy access to games and reasonable prices. The range of consumers has grown as well as the way of control games has changed. Nowadays we can still use keyboard, joystick or joypads but to make game more enjoyable and emotional for us, we can also use our body as a steering wheel. One of the examples can be Kinect which does not require controller.

Innovation in technology has resulted "in-home entertainment" trend. Outdoor activities have been replaced with home entertainment. Instead of going to the gym, people can play in particular games which let them to fitness at home.

Recession is also reason why people spend more time with family at home, trying to save money on bowling, cinemas etc. which is beneficial to gaming industry. Games stores came up against recession and increased second games section to avoid lost of sales. It is easier and cheaper to buy second game for €10 than spend €40 for bowling game in leisure centre.

MARKET SEGMENT

a) Growth of the segment

The European gaming industry is often labeled as one of the most dynamic industries. Although the first video game was created in 1958, gaming has become an integral part of our culture, mostly since 70's. Initially games were available