The FPS Showdown
http://games.ign.com/articles/120/1200238p1.html
Within the last two weeks, two leading video games in the first person shooter (FPS) genre were released: they are Activision’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (CoD: MW3) and Electronic Arts’ Battlefield 3 (BF3). Releasing these two games of the same genre within two weeks is no coincidence, because each of them actually has their own networking strategy in order to boost their sales. From a more objective point of view, this situations correlate to two topics that were recently covered in class: internet link analysis, and population model with network effects.
BF3 was released in late October, followed by MW3 in early November. These two games promote themselves to have the most realistic shooting gaming experience in the history of FPS genre, and this claim excites not only the video gamers, but also the companies in the same industry regarding how far these two competitors can contest each other. Hence, outsiders make constant comparison in previews and reviews, and internet users are almost guaranteed to see the advertisements of these two games next to each other. In a link analysis model, we can take each of the two games as a hub, and internet retailers and websites such as Amazon, Yahoo, CNET News, as authorities. The distribution of hub scores will turn out to be very even, because this competition takes place in the same market and the two games are always mentioned and referenced together.
A lot of people may think each of these two games is a very close substitute of the other, but this is apparently not the case. Based on numerous reviews and critiques, it is understood that BF3 aims to have a stunning visual system with a well-integrated multiplayer network, while MW3 offers a more familiar environment and with its yearly release since 2005. In terms of population model with network effects, both games share the same reservation price in the market. Provided that MW3 has a broader established network of gamers due to the number of sequels, it is obvious that it has a bigger fraction of the market prior to release. In order for the competitor BF3 to increase its valuation in their customers, it was launched before MW3 to grab the attention of those that have seen all those advertisements side to side with BF3. That way customers who are waiting for MW3 are actually interested to test out BF3 first, without defecting their expectations of MW3. The strategy is to capture the market fraction MW3 before MW3 is released, so that BF3 can make its sales to the stable tipping point for its initial launch.
In the long run, analyst claims that “I believe that [MW3] will outsell [BF3] by 2 to 1, which have no doubt is a number that both companies will be happy with.” The potential of BF3 lies with the more newly developed network for multiplayer gaming, and the showdown shall last till winter holiday period.
nice showdown you got here!
about the strategy used i think that Modern Warfare 3 sold even better after Battlefield 3 release solely on the fact that people played it and thought “how can mw3 be even better than this”…
on the BF3 hand they captured the increasing need of hungry FPS players for a new game but the sales on the long run are likely to decrease more dramatically than MW3