...Information Technology Strategic Plan Wahidah Muhammad Strayer University Dr. Richard Brown March 14, 2016 Information Technology Strategic Plan Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and publisher company based in Irvine, California. Founded in 1991, by three University of California, Los Angeles graduate’s students, Michael Morthaime, Frank Dearce and Allen Adham, under the name Silicon & Synapse. Before 1993, the company primarily focused on creating game ports, a connector for video game input devices, for other studios. After being acquired by Davidson & Associates, a distributor company, in 1994, the company became known as Chaos Studios and shortly after Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. Blizzard’s mission is dedicated to creating the most epic entertainment experiences…ever (us.blizzard.com.). With eight core values that represent the principles and beliefs, has shaped this company throughout the years. Their goal is to make every game as fun as possible for as many people they can reach. To improve the quality of the gaming experience, Blizzard Entertainment seeks honest feedback from gamers. Understanding that first and lasting impressions are everything in the gaming industry, the company strives to maintain a high level of respect and integrity in all interactions with players, colleagues, and business partners. Everyone has a little geek in them. With cutting edge technology, comic books, science...
Words: 2423 - Pages: 10
...Journal of Economic Geography Advance Access published June 22, 2005 Journal of Economic Geography (2005) Page 1 of 30 doi:10.1093/jeg/lbi001 Video games production networks: value capture, power relations and embeddedness Jennifer Johns* Abstract This paper has two main aims. Firstly to conceptualize the production networks of the video games industry through an examination of its evolution into a multi-million dollar industry. Secondly, to use the video games industry to demonstrate the utility of Global Production Network approaches to understanding the geographically uneven impacts of globalization processes. In particular, three key notions of value, power and embeddedness are used to reveal the most powerful actors in the production network, how they maintain and exercise their power, and how the organization of production is manipulated as a result. It is argued that while hardware production is organized by console manufacturers using truly global sourcing strategies, the production of software is far more complex. In fact, software production networks are bounded within three major economic regions: Western Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. This paper seeks to explain how and why this has occurred. Keywords: video games, global production networks, value, power, embeddedness JEL classifications: L14, L23, L82 Date submitted: 4 October 2004 Date accepted: 12 April 2005 1. Introduction The video games industry1 was born during the early 1960s and has rapidly...
Words: 14381 - Pages: 58
...The Video Game Industry An Industry Analysis, from a VC Perspective Nik Shah T’05 MBA Fellows Project March 11, 2005 Hanover, NH The Video Game Industry An Industry Analysis, from a VC Perspective Authors: Nik Shah Nik.Shah@Dartmouth.edu Tuck Class of 2005 Charles Haigh Charles.Haigh@Dartmouth.edu Tuck Class of 2005 • The video game industry is poised for significant growth, but many sectors have already matured. Video games are a large and growing market. However, within it, there are only selected portions that contain venture capital investment opportunities. Our analysis highlights these sectors, which are interesting for reasons including significant technological change, high growth rates, new product development and lack of a clear market leader. The opportunity lies in non-core products and services. We believe that the core hardware and game software markets are fairly mature and require intensive capital investment and strong technology knowledge for success. The best markets for investment are those that provide valuable new products and services to game developers, publishers and gamers themselves. These are the areas that will build out the industry as it undergoes significant growth. • A Quick Snapshot of Our Identified Areas of Interest • Online Games and Platforms. Few online games have historically been venture funded and most are subject to the same “hit or miss” market adoption as console games, but as this segment grows, an opportunity...
Words: 15586 - Pages: 63
...The Video Game Industry An Industry Analysis, from a VC Perspective Nik Shah T’05 MBA Fellows Project March 11, 2005 Hanover, NH The Video Game Industry An Industry Analysis, from a VC Perspective Authors: Nik Shah Nik.Shah@Dartmouth.edu Tuck Class of 2005 Charles Haigh Charles.Haigh@Dartmouth.edu Tuck Class of 2005 • The video game industry is poised for significant growth, but many sectors have already matured. Video games are a large and growing market. However, within it, there are only selected portions that contain venture capital investment opportunities. Our analysis highlights these sectors, which are interesting for reasons including significant technological change, high growth rates, new product development and lack of a clear market leader. The opportunity lies in non-core products and services. We believe that the core hardware and game software markets are fairly mature and require intensive capital investment and strong technology knowledge for success. The best markets for investment are those that provide valuable new products and services to game developers, publishers and gamers themselves. These are the areas that will build out the industry as it undergoes significant growth. • A Quick Snapshot of Our Identified Areas of Interest • Online Games and Platforms. Few online games have historically been venture funded and most are subject to the same “hit or miss” market adoption as console games, but as this segment grows, an opportunity...
Words: 15586 - Pages: 63
...Court Rye Market Research Nintendo DS – Marketing Strategy Problem/Situation Description: Ten years ago Nintendo dominated both the console and handheld gaming industry. Today the gaming industry has grown so much that it is competing directly with the movie industry! Growth in this industry is occurring in the demographic of 18-34 year olds. Nintendo is primarily focused on 5-17 year old gamers with its first party software, especially in the handheld gaming market. As the industry expands Nintendo is struggling to retain market share percentages as their primary market of young male gamers is already saturated. Marketing Objectives: Increase Nintendo’s market share and boost sales without losing touch with the current market of 5-17 year old males. Target Audience: The suggested target audience for Nintendo to expand towards is 5-17 year old females. Budget: The three tools suggested for reaching the target consumer most effectively are TV commercials, movie theater pre-show trailers, and the actual casing and packaging of the product. A high quality 30 second commercial is estimated to cost $100,000 to $350,000 dollars. Movie trailer slides are estimated to start at $1500+ for a four week period. Casing and packaging redesign costs are unknown but estimated to be relatively small when spread over the number of units being produced. Total costs for the Nintendogs Pink DS promotion would be nearly $30 Million dollars over the span of four months. Strategy:...
Words: 6123 - Pages: 25
...Introduction: Company Strategy Company’s position themselves with consideration of the characteristics of a market and possible internal competitive advantages (Daniels, Radebaugh, & Sullivan, 2009). Some considerations they face are: 1. Degree of Specialization: the degree to which they should focus efforts in terms of the width of product lines, the target segments, and the geographical market served (Daniels, Radebaugh, & Sullivan, 2009). 2. Brand Identification: the degree to which they should seek brand identification rather than competition on price and other variables achieved via advertising, sales, etc. 3. Technological Leadership: the degree to which they can compete to produce technological innovations. 4. Cost Positioning: the sales strategy they should choose, such as low quality, low cost; or high quality, high cost. Nintendo's Strategy In the current generation of video game consoles Nintendo has released the Wii. Nintendo very boldly announced they would not be competing with Microsoft and Sony when releasing this console. The console incorporates low specialization in hardware but high specialization in software (Datamonitor, 2008). A new style of game play has been incorporated with fully motion sensing controllers, dubbed “wiimotes.” Software is targeted towards a wide variety of ages and many markets. Nintendo recognized internal advantages of software development aimed at multi-player settings to be enjoyed by all age groups and certain...
Words: 2513 - Pages: 11
...Strategic Plan Strategic Plan ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Netflix: Strategic Plan Prepared by Carlos Contreras Jasprit Dyal Jessica Hoeschen Francisco Solano-Downs Yen-Chen Wang Prepared for Dr. Gary Wishnjewsky Date submitted August 22, 2013 Seminar in Strategic Business Management Department of Management California State University, East Bay at Hayward, CA Management - 4650 Industry Analysis Relevant Industry Trends Netflix falls under the broad umbrella of the movies and home entertainment industry. The company has been part of the wave that is taking this industry into the future in terms of how consumers are interacting with home video entertainment in particular. In general, we can observe that consumers are increasingly demanding more instant and personalized experiences when watching video entertainment as well as more mobile availability. There seems to be a “when I want it, how I want it” type of movement among consumers with declining interest in DVD’s and scheduled television programming and increasing use of online streaming or rental alternatives. Netflix is catering to these trends with its streaming service and seems to be well positioned, at least for now, to be successful in the future if it can manage to avoid more strategic “missteps” along the way. It is important to note how the public perceives and values films as an entertainment source here in...
Words: 7403 - Pages: 30
...Sensor Networks Remote Collaboration Tools Technical Aspects of Lawful Interception NGNs and Energy Efficiency Standardization Activities for Intelligent Transport Systems Distributed Computing: Utilities, Grids & Clouds The Future Internet ICTs and Food Security Biometrics and Standards Decreasing Driver Distraction ICT as an Enabler for Smart Water Management Using Submarine Communications Networks to Monitor the Climate Standards and eHealth The Optical World Trends in Video Games and Gaming ITU-T Technology Watch Report September 2011 Video gaming is a global phenomenon, a fast-moving multibillion dollar business, cutting across all age groups and gender. This ITU-T Technology Watch Report surveys some of the latest developments in the world of video games, describes the most common gaming platforms and terminals and highlights new technologies enabling a better gaming experience and associated standardization activities. http://www.itu.int/ITU-T/techwatch Printed in Switzerland Geneva, 2011 The rapid change of the telecommunication/information and communication technologies (ICT) environment requires related technology foresight and immediate action in order to propose possible ITU-T standardization activities as early as possible. ITU-T Technology Watch surveys the ICT landscape to capture new topics for standardization activities. Technology Watch Reports assess new technologies with regard to...
Words: 10531 - Pages: 43
...estimates doubling that figure for this year. Some analysts say it could reach $500 billion in 2013." The biggest success stories of crowdfunding, mainly through Kickstarter, are games and technology. For games, the watershed project was Tim Schafer's Double Fine Adventure. Fine art Schafer was behind the legendary adventure games Monkey Island and Grim Fandango, and Double Fine is his studio. It used to work on projects for major publishers, typically producing AAA games that were too odd, clever or hardcore to sell particularly well, and it was stressed badly. Each new problem made it spiral closer to bankruptcy and the team seemed hopeless. When its over-hyped Brutal Legend, a heavy metal action game starring Jack Black, was recorded by Activision then failed to sell for EA, the sequel was cancelled. Schafer sent his team away and told them to come up with lots of small games that could be sold as download-only. These all got publisher support, kept the company going and garnered critical success. But although they satisfied the team's creative itch, they didn't refill the funds. Schafer still wanted to make a new adventure game, but no one would buy it. As his long-time collaborator Ron Gilbert (creator of Maniac Mansion) said: "I can tell you that if you even utter the words 'adventure game' in a meeting with a publisher, you can just pack up your spiffy concept art and leave." So Schafer bypassed the publishers and set up a Kickstarter in March that year. Notably, he mentioned...
Words: 7021 - Pages: 29
...THE EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL ENVIRONMENTS If managers in the airline industry are going to run their organizations efficiently, they have to understand the external environment confronting them, anticipate how changes in the environment might affect the profitability of their airlines, and take appropriate actions. These actions might include reducing capacity as demand declines, purchasing more fuel-efficient jets, avoiding price wars with low-cost airlines if possible, and reducing labor costs. At the same time the ability of managers to take such actions is shaped by the airlines’ internal environment. For example, some long-established airlines, such as United, have powerful labor unions that have resisted attempts by managers to cut pay for pilots, flight attendants, and ground staff, or to introduce flexible work practices that boost labor productivity. This constraint has kept costs high and made it more difficult for managers to do what is required to make the airline profitable. The situation confronting managers in the airline industry, while dramatic, is not unique. The work of all managers is affected by two main environments: the external environment and the internal environment. The external environment constitutes everything outside a firm that might affect the ability of the enterprise to attain its goals. The external environment itself can be subdivided into two main components. There is the industry or taskenvironment confronting the organization, which typically...
Words: 6133 - Pages: 25
...J O I N T C E N T E R AEI-BROOKINGS JOINT CENTER FOR REGULATORY STUDIES The Antitrust Economics of Two-sided Markets David S. Evans Related Publication 02-13 September 2002 David Evans is Senior Vice President, NERA Economic Consulting. The author is extremely grateful to Howard Chang, George Priest, Jean-Charles Rochet, Richard Schmalensee, and Jean Tirole for many helpful comments and suggestions and Irina Danilkina, Anne Layne-Farrar, Daniel Garcia Swartz, Bryan Martin-Keating, Nese Nasif, and Bernard Reddy for their many contributions to the research upon which article is based. The author has worked for a number of companies in the two-sided markets discussed in this paper including Bloomberg, Microsoft, and Visa. © David S. Evans 2002. Abstract “Two-sided” markets have two different groups of customers that businesses have to get on board to succeed—there is a “chicken-and-egg” problem that needs to be solved. These industries range from dating clubs (men and women), to video game consoles (game developers and users), to credit cards (cardholders and merchants), and to operating system software (application developers and users). They include some of the most important industries in the economy. Two-sided firms behave in ways that seem surprising from the vantage point of traditional industries, but in ways that seem like plain common sense once one understands the business problems they must solve. Prices do not and prices cannot follow marginal costs...
Words: 34916 - Pages: 140
...Nintendo Co., Ltd. (???????, Nintendo Kabushiki gaisha?) is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889[2] by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards.[6] By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel.[7]}} Nintendo developed into a video game company, becoming what is arguably the most influential in the industry, and Japan's third most valuable listed company, with a market value of over US$85 billion.[8] Also, Nintendo of America is the majority owner of the Seattle Mariners Major League Baseball team.[9] The name Nintendo can be roughly translated from Japanese to English as "leave luck to heaven".[10] As of October 18, 2010, Nintendo has sold over 565 million hardware units and 3.4 billion software units.[11] Contents * 1 History o 1.1 As a card company (1889–1956) o 1.2 New ventures (1956–1974) o 1.3 Electronic era (since 1974) + 1.3.1 Handheld console history * 2 Infrastructure o 2.1 Key Executives o 2.2 Offices and locations * 3 Software development studios o 3.1 First-party studios o 3.2 Second-party studios o 3.3 Former affiliates * 4 Policy o 4.1 Emulation o 4.2 Content guidelines o 4.3 License guidelines o 4.4 Seal of Quality + 4.4.1 NTSC regions + 4...
Words: 7314 - Pages: 30
...customer base but has no impact on a firm's intangible assets. D) It is more important for bigger organizations than smaller ones. E) It is seldom used by nonprofit organizations. Answer: B Page Ref: 4 Objective: 1 Difficulty: Easy 2) ________ is the art and science of choosing target markets and getting, keeping, and growing customers through creating, delivering, and communicating superior customer value. A) Marketing management B) Knowledge management C) Operations management D) Strategic management E) Distribution management Answer: A Page Ref: 5 Objective: 2 Difficulty: Easy 3) Identify the correct statement about marketing management. A) It is primarily concerned with the systematic gathering, recording, and analysis of data about issues related to marketing products and services. B) It focuses mostly on monitoring the profitability of a company's products and services. C) It focuses solely on attaining an organization's sales goals in an efficient manner. D) It is defined as the field that deals with planning and managing a business at the highest level of corporate hierarchy. E) It occurs when at least one party to a potential exchange thinks about the means of achieving desired responses from other parties. Answer: E Page Ref: 5 Objective: 2 Difficulty: Moderate 4) A social definition of marketing says ________. A) effective marketing requires companies to remove intermediaries to achieve a closer connection with direct consumers ...
Words: 173926 - Pages: 696
...ALI FARHOOMAND NINTENDO’S DISRUPTIVE STRATEGY: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY For some time we have believed the game industry is ready for disruption. Not just from Nintendo, but from all game developers. It is what we all need to expand our audience. It is what we all need to expand our imaginations. - Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo Co. Ltd1 In the 2008 BusinessWeek–Boston Consulting Group ranking of the world’s most innovative companies, Nintendo Co. Ltd (“Nintendo”) was ranked seventh, up from 39th the previous year. 2 This recognised Nintendo’s significant transformation into an innovative design powerhouse that had challenged the prevailing business model of the video game industry. In 2000, when Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo (the “big three” of the video game console manufacturers) released their latest products, Sony's PlayStation 2 (“PS2”) emerged as the clear winner, outselling Microsoft’s Xbox and Nintendo’s GameCube. In 2006, a new generation of video game consoles was introduced by these players, precipitating a new competitive battle in the industry. Microsoft and Sony continued with their previous strategies of increasing the computing power of their newest products and adding more impressive graphical interfaces. However, Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, believed that the video game industry had been focusing far too much on existing gamers and completely neglecting non-gamers. Armed with this insight, the company repositioned...
Words: 10466 - Pages: 42
...MARKETING 7E People real Choices This page intentionally left blank MARKETING 7E People real Choices Michael R. SAINT JOSEPH S SOLOMON ’ U OLLINS NIVERSITY Greg W. MARSHALL R C OLLEGE Elnora W. THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA UPSTATE STUART Prentice Hall Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Upper Saddle River Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Munich Paris Montreal Toronto Delhi Mexico City Sao Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo Editorial Director: Sally Yagan Editor in Chief: Eric Svendsen Acquisitions Editor: Melissa Sabella Director of Editorial Services: Ashley Santora Editorial Project Manager: Kierra Bloom Editorial Assistant: Elisabeth Scarpa Director of Marketing: Patrice Lumumba Jones Senior Marketing Manager: Anne Fahlgren Marketing Assistant: Melinda Jensen Senior Managing Editor: Judy Leale Project Manager: Becca Richter Senior Operations Supervisor: Arnold Vila Creative Director: Jon Christiana Senior Art Director: Blair Brown Text and Cover Designer: Blair Brown Media Project Manager, Production: Lisa Rinaldi Media Project Manager, Editorial: Denise Vaughn Full-Service Project Management: S4Carlisle Publishing Services Composition: S4Carlisle Publishing Services Printer/Bindery: Courier/Kendalville Cover Printer: Courier/Kendalville Text Font: Palatino Credits and acknowledgments borrowed from other sources and reproduced, with permission, in this textbook appear on appropriate page within text. Microsoft®...
Words: 160652 - Pages: 643
