Monetization of PC gaming platforms

Absztrakt (kivonat)

This thesis will be focused on the business model and customer side of the PC gaming industry, researching the business models which developers use to monetize their product and satisfaction of customers in regard to payment. The hypothesis which I introduce in this topic is that there are different business models in PC gaming industry and each of them targets different segment of users. As every user is different type of individual, the business models are also individually designed. However, the focal point there is the price/quality, such as the business model price should refer to its quality and correlation should exist in order to meet consumers’ expectations. It can be also a case that the quality of the product is in high level, however the price is not correlated and kept low, which makes way to gradual collapse of the product in the specific timeframe. As the consumers’ expectations met, the price should also be determined accordingly, and sustainability of the product will be longer. The hypothesis is: The expectation of business model of PC gaming platform customers depends on the customers’ profiles, their needs for purchase and their financial position. In the hypothesis, the main focus is on the price of the good and satisfaction of the customers. In order to answer the research question, in the analytical part, a model for the successful monetization of the abstract PC game will be introduced as a case study. The objectives of the case study will be to analyze and conclude the below points: - To develop high-level architecture of the PC game and to introduce the business model that the game will be monetized by; - To build a model of a monetization strategy for decision-making under multiple choice conditions; - To define points that can be added to the system for further development of the game and its monetization. This thesis work consists of two main parts: theoretical and analytical part. The aim to divide this thesis work into those parts is to firstly have a deep literature research of gaming industry from monetization standpoint and then to make practical part with the selected case study in order to implement the knowledge and find solution. With the help of the literature review, in the theoretical part it was found that many business models emerged with the invention of computers and internet, and gaming industry does not only rely on one business model to be monetized. While classical approach takes into consideration the one-time payment method where the game is purchased by customer, the recent models apply various methods of monetization including one-time fee charge for the download as in classical approach combined with adds-on approach which is the fee charge based on the additional features. In the analytical part, first the systematic review of the literature conducted for the 4P model of the marketing with the further aim of its implication to the case study conducted to the famous PC game named “The Motivation Academy”, which can be downloaded through online streaming service called “Stream”. It was found that the developers of the game did the changes in the monetization strategy of the game several times according to the needs of their customer target audience. Developers took into consideration the experience of the customers, their feelings of belonging to the society of the game and being the owners of the game and their efforts to be competitive among other players/competitors. Developers particularly targeted custome4rs that are ready to pay, not willing to pay and the customers that want to try first and then play. Accordingly, they created different plans where customers either pay and get discounts, or don’t pay and does not get any discounts in the future, or a plan with the trial week. The final aim was to make the customers to pay even if they are not willing to pay for the game in the way of purchasing adds-ons. For this purpose, the developers were using different analytical tools to find out their target audience with the help of search keywords, retention rate, installation, feedbacks, customers profiles based on their age, education, employment, etc. As a conclusion, in this thesis work, the hypothesis was that the expectation of business model of PC gaming platform customers depends on the customers’ profiles, their needs for purchase and their financial position. The hypothesis is confirmed as it was clarified that the success of the game in terms of monetization is based on the customers profile and their need of purchase, as well as personal financing. The way how game should be monetized cannot be kept constant if the developers aim to get the income through long duration of time. The monetization should be adjusted using the analytical tools and feedbacks from customers, particularly focusing on their needs and willingness to pay.