I Am Not a Cow: Why Game Developers Are Getting It Wrong

With next gen consoles getting set for release this year. Shiny new features like: “second screen integration” (allowing other devices like your smart phone or tablet to connect), and a major focus on cloud-related features (for digital streaming ordownloads), may sound really cool… but they also illustrate a big problem that’been creeping into the gaming industry for some time now.  Game developershave no clear direction and they don’t understand their target market.

The market for games is incredibly diverse and can be complex. What one segment wants will be the polar opposite of another segment. Some individual people fall into multiple segments.

GAMERS ARE:

 

All gamers are not equal. And yet game developing companies are failing to recognize this on a fundamental level. The problem has been going on for quite a while now. In 2011, David Wong highlights this fact (among others).  http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-6-most-ominous-trends-in-video-games_p2/ When games sales dropped years ago, developers scrambled find the reason and to bring revenues back up. Some people might argue that piracy and the used game market are cutting into sales. Others would say mobile platforms with their dollar apps are what are killing the industry and that casual gaming is the wave of the future.

I say it’s all symptoms of the same problem. Developers chased one fad after another, not considering two very important things: segmentation and price. To start with, most major games released are overpriced. One huge reason the used game market is booming is that people can’t afford new releases, so they sell their old games at ridiculous markdowns to fund their new purchase. It’s more complicated than simply overpricing the market though.

There are multiple pricing systems and multiple types of games. Some pricing systems work with some types of games, but not others. Because developers have failed to properly segment the market, and clearly define those segments, they’re throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks (and angering their customers in the process). Microtransactions are working with free-to-play mmos and digital games like the stuff produced by Zynga.  Yet it was a PR disaster when they tried to apply that to Bethesda’s single player RPG Oblivion. Expansion packs and downloadable content can work well, when applied to the right game and at the right time. Get either game or timing wrong, and you’ll have major backlash.

People are not happy with having these Frankenstein mashups of both game style and pricing systems shoved down their throats. Yet developers aren’t listening. They’re herding their customers like cattle, convinced the direction they’re forcing them in is best. When in reality developers attempt to move in all directions at once has resulted in no clear direction at all. Next gen consoles with shiny new features won’t save the gaming industry. What they truly need is to take a long hard look at what who their customers are, and what they want… And also what they don’t want.

GAMERS ARE NOT:

I am not a cow. Please don’t treat me like one.