Case questions:
1. How might a SWOT analysis have helped Electronic Arts assess its slippage in the video-game market?
SWOT analysis allows a manager to capitalize on a business’s strengths, while avoiding threats and weakness. Electronic Arts could have prevented Activision Blizzard from acquiring some of its market share by using the SWOT analysis to detect the company’s own internal flaws. Some of EA’s weaknesses included: conflicts between managers and developers, the practice of a predictable and counterproductive strategy of game acquisition and homogenization of future franchises, and an overall lack of imagination within the brand. All of these negative traits might have been identified and modified if management had based on a SWOT
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By producing familiar fan-favorites while constantly testing new ground; the company will enjoy brand recognition of its innovative products, but those games will also need to overshadow the competition if Activision Blizzard is to remain the global king of video games.
4. If you ran a small video-game start-up, what would be your strategy for competing with EA and Activision Blizzard?
I would begin by performing extensive marketing research. By creating a perceptual map, I could draw up a vivid picture of the industry landscape, developing a better understanding of existing competitors’ positions in the marketplace. Overall, my firm would follow the analyzer strategy, pursuing tight accounting and financial controls, efficient production, and creativity along with low costs. By using this method, I might have a chance as a new market entry, up against the towering giants who currently own the industry.
5. If you're a video-game player, what aspects of Activision's strategy have led to your playing more (or fewer) of its games? If you're not a video-game player, what aspects of Activision Blizzard's strategy might induce you to try a few of its
A SWOT Analysis can be powerful to any company. The SWOT analysis for PetSmart allows them to expose opportunities that otherwise could be missed ("SWOT Analysis," n.d.). An additional benefit of a PetSmart SWOT analysis is gives the company an understanding of their weaknesses, which can result in a competitive edge for its competitor. Understanding strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threat as a company will give PetSmart an advantage over a company who chooses to ignore this type of analysis. In addition, PetSmart can eradicate any possible threats that could catch them off guard ("SWOT Analysis," n.d.).
During the early 1980s, Atari was the number one video game company in America. Atari had prophesized that they would turn an extreme profit during the time between 1980 and 1985. When Steven Spielberg came to Atari in July of 1982 asking to make a game version of his famous movie E.T., Atari promised him millions of dollars in royalties—even if the game failed—and that they could make the game by September of that year—an impossible deadline. At Christmas, 1982, E.T. The Game released. By the end of 1983, Atari had lost over $500 million and Warner Bros. sold Atari that year—leaving many thinking it was due to E.T.’s commercial failure. It’s rumored that E.T. The Game was so horrible that Atari took all the returned copies of the game and dumped them in a landfill in the New Mexico desert. Obviously, cause for a mass game “burial”. (Kent, 2001)
SWOT analysis is a necessary tool for business that allows corporations to analyze where their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats lie. The SWOT tool contains paramount information about the industry and helps the executives of the business make decisions that are necessary for the business’s survival and success.
Glazer, S. (2006, November 10). Video Games. CQ Researcher, 16, 937-960. Retrieved February 11, 2010, from CQ Researcher Online
A SWOT analysis is simple exercise that could be implemented on multiple subjects including an individual or a whole corporation. The SWOT analysis is an operational tool for managing change, defining strategic direction and setting realistic goals and objectives according to Simoneaux and Stroud (2011). Discovering new opportunities and manage and eliminate threats that are present in the company and the surrounding market. SWOT is a valuable technique that leads to a better understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and treats both internally and externally. The strengths and weakness are to be considered internal factors and opportunities and threats to be e...
"Business & Money." A History of Video Game Consoles. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013. .
A SWOT analysis is a measure tool to summarize a company’s internal and external aspects. By measuring the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats and looking for improving solutions by using the strengths and opportunities to improve on the weaknesses and take the necessary actions concerning any threats a company can survive in today’s world market.
Video games have come a long way. They have evolved from the simple game of Pong into a complex, multi-platform, multi-genre, multi-billion dollar industry.
The video game industry is a one hundred million dollar industry and like any large industry, it is resistant to change, especially when the problem isn’t obvious and affecting their bottom line (Harwell). Due to this, the audience I’d like to reach isn’t in the gaming industry at all. Instead, I want to
There are both good and bad things about people being able to develop their own games without a lot of help. The developers could put a lot of time and effort into making the “Perfect Game” or barely put any effort and try to sell the g...
Video games might have started out as a very small market. But today, this market has grown even bigger than the movie or music industry. Each year, millions and millions games fly off store shelves. Grand Theft Auto V broke sales records of the fastest selling entertainment property ever. While this game and others such as Call of Duty, Battlefield, and Assassin’s Creed sell millions of copies every year, other games don’t sell so well and just sit in store shelves. So, why do gamers rush out to stores to buy some games and pass by others? The answer is not so simple as “good games sell and bad games don’t.” If this were the case, then a game like Persona 4, a critically acclaimed game, would have sold millions of units. While Call of Duty that gets mixed reviews from its fans each year, sells millions of units each year. There are many factors that go into the buying decisions of a gamer. Advertising, gaming reviews, and trends/popularity(how well known a game is and trends by popular people) all affect the buying decisions of gamers.
The case study highlighted that the new game Wii introduced by the company had the ability to attract individuals considered non-gamers or casual gamers. The Wii was not as powerful or technologically advanced as the Xbox 360 and the PS3, but its success lies in its ability to provide a new means of playing video games. The innovative design of the Wii’s controller, which had built in motion sensors, created a whole new gaming experience for users - on...
To illustrate the industry of games as it currently stands, the infographic denotes the different industry players in relation to each other and the channels through which players access media. The graphic shows a cross-section of a sphere that allows us to see inside the “gaming sphere.” A spherical shape was chosen to
In the present time, video games make up a large part of many country’s cultures. Since the first video games produced on room-sized computers back in 19471, just what kind of things caused video games to evolve into the enormous industry of the 21st century? The advancement in video games can be largely attributed to improvements in technology, precedents set by certain integral video game companies, but was also set back by a crash in the market in 1983.
"Interest In Gaming Grows With Focus On Competitiveness, Engagement And Critical Thinking. (Cover Story)." Electronic Education Report 14.12 (2007): 1-3.