Empirical Analysis and Development of Marketing Strategies for Preliminary Sales of a Digital Product (Videogames of the Entertainment Industry as an Example)

This final qualifying paper proposes practical recommendations for the improvement of the marketing strategy for next part of Watch Dogs, action-adventure game from Ubisoft. The gaming industry is one of the leading segments of the entertainment industry. Currently, the videogame market is oversaturated with a variety of products. In this regard, the developers and publishers of videogames are in difficult conditions to promote their products to the modern market. Therefore, a set of marketing activities in the development of gaming applications has a special importance in promotion to the market of videogames. The research of this paper identifies the preferences of players, which they rely on when deciding to pre-order a game or to purchase it in the first week of sales after the official release. In particular, the research investigates the players' attitude towards the scandal with Watch Dogs 1, and the reasons for buying or ignoring Watch Dogs 2. Popular game series such as Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto were included in the research for comparison of players’ attitude with other games. The research also revealed the players' attitude towards the annual releases of Call of Duty games. In addition, there was an attempt to identify the reasons for the most successful sales in history of Grand Theft Auto V videogame. The results of the study revealed that the main reason for the unsuccessful launch sales of Watch Dogs 2 was the players’ lack of interest in the sequel. Despite a loud scandal with the first part, distrust to Ubisoft was not the main reason of ignoring Watch Dogs 2. Based on the obtained results, recommendations for future marketing strategies to promote the next part of the Watch Dogs game were made. To implement these recommendations, the game needs to change the idea of an open in-game world and revise the basic concept of the game, the hacking of various devices, at a more detailed level in order to attract interest to the next game.