Annotated Bibliography

Posted byDuke MaddoxPosted inUncategorized

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Duke Maddox

Ms. Taylor

ENGL 1106

2/20/20

Research Question: What marketing choices makes or breaks a gaming company.

Annotated Bibliography

Cox, Joe. “What Makes a Blockbuster Video Game? An Empirical Analysis of US Sales Data.” Managerial & Decision Economics, vol. 35, no. 3, Apr. 2014, pp. 189–198. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1002/mde.2608.

            This academic article by Joe Cox. In this article he gives a detailed look into the kinds of things big game companies do to create a successful game. In its introduction it explains how many game franchises are surpassing the sales of big franchises in more traditional mediums like movies and books. It goes into more detail by explaining how this could be attributed a shift in game companies increasingly focusing on volume of sales. Also, like the other mediums I mentioned before, franchises are now more common in games. This repetition is popular, because a franchise remains familiar, while innovating to stay relevant. It is not many video game companies goal to secure their own franchise.

            This source will be useful by providing a concrete reason on what makes a game popular. It makes the argument that game companies are shifting their marketing that incentivize sheer sales volumes. It gives an example of this by explaining companies shift in focus towards franchising.  It makes a useful comparison to games with movies, and a pattern between companies that create sales hit. I will able to use this point in explaining unpopular opinions as well. I can source this to explain why many companies are starting to feel repetitive and uninventive to the modern audience. Some key words I would contribute to this would be: Franchise, sales volume, familiarity, influence, and publishers.

            Some of the citations that stuck out to me where: , and I believe them to be the most important.

  • Guardian. 2011. Modern Warfare 3 smashes entertainment

            launch records. Retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.

    uk/technology/gamesblog/2011/nov/11/modern-warfare3-breaks-sales-records

  • 51(2–3): 189–224. Gallagher S, Park SO. 2002. Innovation and competition in standard-based industries: a historical analysis of the U.S. home video game market. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management

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            There where also some quotations that I believe will be useful for my argument in my research paper. “To an extent, this reinforces the findings of Evans et al. (2005) that suggest killer apps are almost always produced by hardware manufacturers themselves.” -Page 194. This quote suggests that the hardware manufacturers of the consoles may have more of an advantage in marketing their titles. Another that would help my argument would be “In each of these logistic regressions, the platform of release is found to have a significant influence on the likelihood of a video game title becoming a blockbuster.”-196. One question I still have for this article is what are someone business decisions that negatively affect sales?

Orland, Kyle. “EA Gives in to Belgian Regulators, Stops Selling FIFA Loot Boxes.” Ars Technica, 30 Jan. 2019, arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/01/ea-gives-in-to-belgian-regulators-stops-selling-fifa-loot-boxes/.

            This is a news article from a event that happened recently involving EA, a gaming company that makes many of the triple A  games. The scandal was based around the accusation of gambling and implementing a system in the game that promoted an unfair advantage to those who participated in it. The lawsuit was spearheaded by the Belgian government and resulted in EA backing down. Despite the lawsuit being dropped and EA implementing new systems to make loot boxes fairer, the company has had a large PR drop.

            This article will come in handy for my research because it described a recent event that caused a large drop in public opinion. I can use this article to make the argument that similar decisions can cause a drop in public opinion in other companies. This could therefore lead to worse sales.

            This article did not contain direct citations, but It does refer to other works and where it got it. Orland refers to EA’s public releasement statements, and statements by the Belgian government.

            Some quotations in this article I think I will find particularly helpful. “Belgian players will have until January 31 to stock up on FIFA Points before sales are halted in the country.” -Paragraph 5. This quote shows a direct effect that this had on sales. “The loss of the relatively tiny Belgium microtransaction market for FIFA is likely a drop in the bucket for EA” – Paragraph eight does a similar thing. A question I still have is abouthow much revenue was lost for EA with this lawsuit?

Raj, Hritwik. “Bethesda To Face A Class Action Lawsuit For Not Fulfilling Fallout 76 Refunds.” Spiel Times, 27 Nov. 2018, www.spieltimes.com/news/bethesda-to-face-a-class-action-lawsuit-for-not-fulfilling-fallout-76-refunds/.

            This news article by Hriwik Raj reports on a controversy and Lawsuit in Bethesda games. This lawsuit is on Bethesda refund policy on their game “ Fallout 76.”The lawsuit come from the fact that Bethesda is denying refunds on this game, despite the players being within the lawsuit policy. The organization conducting the lawsuit launched an investigation upon public outcry and complaints that customers where being denied by Bethesda customer service upon requesting a refund.

            I feel like this source will be useful for my research project. Like the previous source it provides another example of an event that cause a company to fallout of public opinion. The article cites quotes from other articles, and a previous one of their own on the subject. These two sources add some background to the article:

            The article also has some quotations I believe will be helpful for conducting my research. “ We reported on Sunday, November 25th, that one of many Reddit users posted their experience with the Bethesda Support team and how they denied the refund request after promising to “begin processing the refund” as soon as they can.” – Paragraph 1. This quote stood out because I showed the public’s discontent with, he actions the company has taken. “Things are going awry for Bethesda. First, the horrendous review scores, then the massive drop in price, innumerable complaints and now, a legal battle. Stay with us as we’ll update you the moment the story develops.” – Paragraph 8. This quote was picked because it mentions how the company dropped the price due to the back lash, once again showing numerical consequences for a falling In public opinion. One question I still have for this source is how much did this drop in price effect the amount of money the game was bringing in in the first place?

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