...Microsoft Microsoft started from humble beginnings in 1975, and soon rose to become one of the biggest companies in modern history. Today, Microsoft is having record revenues, making a total of $18.06 billion dollars last quarter (Forbes). Microsoft affects almost everyone’s life in the US daily, whether it is kids on their Xbox, to desk workers using Windows Office each day to accomplish their work, people use Windows every day. From Microsoft’s early beginnings to its multibillion-dollar company today, Windows has had success from the start, and will continue to for the coming decades. Two men in 1975; Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft. (History of Windows) They started out with MS-DOS, their first operating system. The companies’ first headquarters was in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but after signing some pivotal contracts with IBM, they moved to their headquarters in Bellevue, Washington in 1979.(History of Windows) Working side by side with IBM to develop OS/2, Microsoft released their new product, Microsoft Windows. It was a graphical extension of MS-DOS. On March 13th, 1986, Microsoft went public, which would result in 4 billionaires and an estimated 12,000 millionaires being created from the ensuing rise in stock. (Forbes) Along with its partnership with IBM came allegations that they were trying to monopolize the computer industry. The Federal Trade Commission set its sights on Microsoft and began almost a decade of legal battles between Microsoft and the...
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...Microsoft’s XBOX 365 Portable Gaming Device Marketing Plan Jason Hudson MKTG522 / Herbig 10/19/2012 1.0 Executive Summary Are you tired of playing “Angry Birds, Words with Friends, or Song Tune on your mobile phone…bored with your iPad? Are your kids fed up with beating Mario in races and his 3D worlds? Ever wanted to take the live-action first-person shooter, “Call of Duty” or “Madden” on the road and play against friends during a road trip or a long flight? Well guess what? Us…good folks here at Microsoft have been working day and night to on some monumental news!!! Microsoft’s ambitions have been nothing short of amazing and being a huge pioneer in the IT industry, dating back to its inception in the early 1980’s. Microsoft is the world’s number one leading in software development and has controlled an overwhelming share of the personal computer operating system market. Microsoft’s products, do not stop at the development of software, nor operating systems; the company supplies the world with a number and variety of different types of products, including their office software, Zune (digital music player), CRM applications, sever and storage software, and last but not least XBOX as well as, the XBOX 360 video gaming consoles. Now that we are entering 2013, XBOX has stood by idle, in the portable gaming device market as we watched Sony & Nintendo dominate their way through this particular gaming market. Well now!! Microsoft has been absence for far...
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...The Challenge Of Maintaining Greatness in the Gaming Industry Strategic Management Professor : Yuri Mishina 12-12-2013 1 Table of Contents Executive Summary....................................................................................................................................... 3 Industry Analysis ........................................................................................................................................... 3 Threat of New Entrants ............................................................................................................................. 4 Power of Suppliers .................................................................................................................................... 4 Power of Buyers ........................................................................................................................................ 4 Substitutes ................................................................................................................................................ 5 Degree of Rivalry ....................................................................................................................................... 6 Firm Analysis ................................................................................................................................................. 7 Company Strategy ....................................................................................
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...or revolutionary strategy KEY PLAYERS IN THE VIDEO GAME INDUSTRY Sony (Playstation), Nintendo (Wii) and Microsoft (Xbox) SONY – introduced Playstation (PS), attracted late teens and young adults with disposable income, offered more sophisticated and more violent games; backward compatibility (PS1, PS2 and PS3), can also play CDs and DVDs. Also launched Playstation Portable (PSP) 1. PS3 – a multimedia entertainment hub; allows users to chat online, listen to music, view HD animations 2. results were disappointing because of Supply problems and the high price tag SONY produced 40% of its components in-house. Massive costs of investing in the game console equipped with Blu-ray and Cell chip MICROSOFT – a diversification move, addressing a potential threat the video game market was posing in the PC market. 1. Xbox – compete directly with PS2 and Gamecube DISRUPTIVE STRATEGY: INNOVATIONS THAT CAPTURED NON-GAMERS/ REVOLUTIONIZED THE NAME OF THE GAME AND IMPACTED OTHER INDUSTRIES AS WELL Wii – a nifty machine that used a wand-like remote controller to...
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...Valve’s Distribution Strategy: Introduction: Digital game distribution is the simplest, cheapest, most convenient way to sell games and has been possible for a decade. “Digital distribution accounts for 24% of [game] sales in the US, up from 20% in 2009” and is more profitable to game companies over physical sales (Okalow a, 2012). You may ask yourself: why are there still physical retailers if digital distribution is so much better? This is one of many problems in the current game retail industry we will be exploring. The Steam Client is a digital game retailer and a multiplayer and communications platform created by Valve Corporation in 2003. Steam has over 1500 games available and over 54 million active users and is estimated to control roughly 70% of the digital game market. Steam will be the future of game retail and it is positioning itself perfectly to do so. This paper will discuss the current state of the game industry and how and why it has gotten there. From there it will focus on how games are sold today and how retailers are positioning themselves for the future. Lastly the paper will dissect the Steam client and all it has to offer; specifically comparing it to current physical and digital retailers. As technology goes digital, entertainment media seems to be stuck in the physical past; at least for the time being. This is changing rapidly as more and more gamers are realizing the benefits of digital distribution. DFC Intelligence is forecasting that...
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...Valve’s Distribution Strategy: Introduction: Digital game distribution is the simplest, cheapest, most convenient way to sell games and has been possible for a decade. “Digital distribution accounts for 24% of [game] sales in the US, up from 20% in 2009” and is more profitable to game companies over physical sales (Okalow a, 2012). You may ask yourself: why are there still physical retailers if digital distribution is so much better? This is one of many problems in the current game retail industry we will be exploring. The Steam Client is a digital game retailer and a multiplayer and communications platform created by Valve Corporation in 2003. Steam has over 1500 games available and over 54 million active users and is estimated to control roughly 70% of the digital game market. Steam will be the future of game retail and it is positioning itself perfectly to do so. This paper will discuss the current state of the game industry and how and why it has gotten there. From there it will focus on how games are sold today and how retailers are positioning themselves for the future. Lastly the paper will dissect the Steam client and all it has to offer; specifically comparing it to current physical and digital retailers. As technology goes digital, entertainment media seems to be stuck in the physical past; at least for the time being. This is changing rapidly as more and more gamers are realizing the benefits of digital distribution. DFC Intelligence is forecasting that...
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...Executive Summary Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. has the unique distinction of being the first and only company to have had market leadership for 2 consecutive console generations. However, in recent times, the ecosystem has changed to include a larger audience and usability has trumped technological superiority as a key metric in generating buyer interest. In 2008, Nintendo’s Wii had 2 times the market share that Sony’s offering, the Play Station 3, had. I feel Sony should assess the following options. (1) Focus on catering to its niche advance game segment and focus on leveraging its progress form the previous 2 generations. (2) Respond to Wii onslaught by developing its previous generation console to include a low end offering that directly competes with Wii. (3) Partner with Nintendo and others to strengthen offerings in the gaming console space, eliminating Microsoft and creating a “co-opetition” I recommend a combination of (1) and (3) to ensure sustained dominance in the gaming console market. I would not look to option (2) since it undermines SCEI’s position as a focused differentiator (Exhibit 1 in appendix) and also because this would be a knee jerk reaction forcing Sony to play on Nintendo’s terms. Analysis As evident from Porters five forces analysis (Exhibit 2) the console market is not very attractive for new entrants. . However, there is a huge growth opportunity for established players since there is only moderate buyer bargaining power and few substitutes...
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...Zynga Inc.'s "FarmVille" and "CityVille” (Wingfield, 2011). Nintendo is finding out that the marketing of the new 3D device is not what people really want necessarily and do not want to spend $250 on one of these devices. They are lowering the price to $170 and offered free software to those who purchased it at the higher cost. The lowering of the price not only reflects the change in gaming but the bleak and weakness around the world economically. “The world is different today that it has been for every other platform transition in the past,” said John Taylor a videogame analyst at Arcadia Research in Portland, OR” (Wingfield, 2011). This problem with the 3DS is more notable because of Nintendo’s marketing and redefining of video games. While Sony and Microsoft were trying to incorporate Blu-ray players and other items, they were developing the Wii and motion-sensing gaming devices. They have sold more than 85 million Wii’s and over 147 million DS devices since the products arrived on the market. This makes both devices the best-selling products in their respective categories in gaming. Nintendo is using post-hoc segmentation to try to...
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...AMD as a Company History Customers should come first, at every stage of a company’s activities. This customer driven approach to doing business was at the core of AMD’s founding in 1969 and remains the central focus of the company’s policy today. Advanced Micro Devices was founded in 1969 by a group of former executives from Fairchild Semiconductor. The company began by exclusively designing and producing microprocessors and slowly building on their core competencies to foray into other computer hardware. In 1975, AMD introduced a reverse-engineered clone of the Intel 8080 microprocessor. Even then Intel chip architecture was considered the industry standard. AMD’s laggard position in the industry can be traced all the way back to the beginning. Throughout the seventies AMD diversified its product portfolio into graphics, audio devices, and computer memory. AMD achieved minor success in the 1980s by briefly competing in the modem industry. At the time, AMD manufactured the only modem compatible with the various idiosyncrasies of the different telephone companies. In the late eighties AMD decided to devote its focus mainly to designing and manufacturing microchips. The company chose to compete directly with Intel and their established chip architecture. AMD acquired ATI Technologies in 2006, marking the company’s serious entry into the graphics industry. AMD’s jump into graphics got off to a rocky start. Later that year, AMD and its main rival in the graphics industry, NVIDIA...
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...interest for Nintendo (multiple target segmentation). With this approach Nintendo attempted to reach out to all non gamers with simple applications and realistic games. “Wii is designed to increase the social game play of videogames”. (2006-03-20: President Iwata) Company: In 2006 Nintendo launched the “Wii”. The name phonetically was a smart choice making us think that this game is made by “us” for “us”. The new console with its advanced and revolutionary features (Wireless motion-sensitive remote controllers, built-in Wi-Fi capability) made progressive sales with the most important profit the recognition. Nintendo Wii with 22% was found in the Top 10 for 2006 of the Most Memorable New Product Launches. Nintendo tried to position the “Wii” as a cool, no age limit, and low-budget alternative console. Competitors: Microsoft (Xbox 360), Sony (PS3) and Sega seem to be the main direct Nintendo competitors. The point of contact is obviously gaming, but the point of differentiation is the gaming experience and extra features. Microsoft and Sony introduced HD gaming and graphics. The Xbox 360 offered good memory and quality graphics. The PS3 had moved ahead from the DVD to the Blu-ray format winning on storage capacity and graphics...
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...Matthew Cobb A00467087 11/6/13 PS4 vs xbox one Matthew Cobb A00467087 11/6/13 PS4 vs xbox one If you've never touched a video game controller in your life, but do have avid players in your household, you may be in for a bewildering month. That's because we're on the verge of what the gaming industry excitedly calls 'a new console generation'. In short, the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, once the most powerful games machines on the planet are being replaced – the former by the Xbox One, the latter by the PlayStation 4 (PS4). All you really need to know is that both the PS4 and the Xbox One represent a significant leap over their predecessors. Some people in the industry are suggesting that the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 are around eight times more powerful than the current Xbox 360 and PS3 machines. Does this mean that games will look eight times better? Probably not – tech specs don't work like that. But game visuals will look noticeably more detailed, and you'll see lots of lovely lighting effects and intricate character animations, which add to the "realism" of game worlds. I've put realism in quote marks there because we're still a long way from "photo-realism". However, I think the big blockbuster Xbox One and PS4 games will have moments where you'll think you're watching TV, or at least a pretty good animated movie. What about the technical differences between the consoles? Well, they're pretty negligible to the naked eye. Both are using very similar...
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...the environment (context) that they operate under while providing several suggestions of improving their communications to parties internally and externally. There this group is consisted of 3 members and the chosen industry and organization for this report is gaming consoles; Microsoft Xbox. While conducting our research on the context of the industry and Microsoft Xbox, several marketing tools were used to acquire this information. With the utilization of Asteroid Tabulation, we were able to acquire supporting information on consumers. This information would involve the use of the Roy Morgan surveying data base. By conducting marketing research through the use of Asteroid and Roy Morgan resources the group was able to determine and observe formalities, and purchase and consumer behaviour of the customers. Other areas of context of the gaming console industry were analysed, one of the areas included the way Microsoft Xbox has communicated to prospective customers and current customers. In terms of marketing perspective; we will discuss the ideologies and perspective Microsoft Xbox are communicating to their customers. A situation analysis is also conducted in terms of the environment Microsoft and other gaming console company’s face. As competitors also determine the behaviour of how a corporation will behave, therefore to determine decision making in response to competitors, A SWOT analysis is conducted to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Based...
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...●●● Introduction ……...………….……..………..….……………………………………………………………………………….. 3 External Analysis …………….…………….…………………………………………………………………………………….. 3 PESTEL Analysis ……………….……………………………………………………………………………………………. 4 Political Factors ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 4 Economic Factors …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 4 Socio-Cultural Factors ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 5 Technological Factors ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 6 Environmental Factors ………………………………………………………………………………………... 7 Legal Factors ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 7 Five – Forces Model ……………………………………….……………………………………………………………. 8 Supplier Power ……….………….…………....………………………………………………………………… 8 Buyer Power ………………………...……..………………………………………….…………….…………… 9 Degree of Rivalry ……………………….………..……………………………………………………………. 10 Threat of New Entrants ……….………....……….……………………………………………………….. 10 Threat of Substitutes …………….……….……………………………………….………………………… 11 Conclusion ....……. ………………..………………………………………………………………………………………….. 12 Problems and Solutions …………………………………………………………………………………………… 12 Works Cited ………………………………………...…………………………………………………………………………... 14 Introduction Gabe Newell, a Harvard drop out, began working for Microsoft in 1983. Newell spent thirteen years at Microsoft and emerged as a “Microsoft Millionaire.” Newell and his co-worker Mike Harrington left Microsoft in 1996 to begin their own company. The inspiration came from another former Microsoft employee named Michael Abrash...
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...Video-Conferencing ICTs and Climate Change Ubiquitous 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...
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... 35 - 36 The video game industry includes a broad spectrum of operations including: gaming consoles, games made for consoles, and online games which make up the retail segment of the industry. The majority share of the market is the development and manufacturing of games, consoles and accessories. This report goes through a history of the video game industry; trends to look for in the 21st century; the United States markets and the four segments (games and software, consoles, online games and software, and accessories); regional markets by segment; the major competitors in the video game industry; consumers of the industry, and the minimal regulations that affect the industry. The Appendices provide profiles for the major companies in the video game industry including Nintendo Co. Ltd., Microsoft Corporation, Sony Corporation, Electronic Arts Inc., and GameStop Corp. History of the Video Game Industry Though the history of video games goes back to the 1950s with simple games and simulations being used in academic settings for research, video games did not reach mainstream popularity until the 1970s and 1980s. Since then, video games have games have become a popular form of entertainment around the world. There are currently eight generations of video games consoles including Nintendo’s Wii U, Microsoft’s Xbox One, and Sony’s Playstation 4. PC gaming is...
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