{-Finance-}
Preorder Bonuses
The gaming industry relies on different way to finance itself, from selling stocks to licensing there are many financing trends. Some of these have been with the industry from the start of gaming. An example of a financial trend is preorder bonuses, they are special editions of games that come with extra content, memorabilia and/or exclusive character skins. They don't cost much to produce and they give eager fans a reward for preordering the game.
A good example of a preorder bonus is the ones in Overwatch and Watch_Dogs, Overwatch offered an exclusive statue of Winston that has taken time and money to produce while Watch_Dogs offers the player exclusive items and clothing along with a brand new mission. These bonus items are specifically made to target the player's interest. If the player preordered Overwatch then there's a high chance they did so due to the characters and story, it makes sense that the bonus they get would be one of the characters from the game, on the other hand the type of person who preorders Watch_Dogs is probably interested in the hacking mechanic, the gameplay and the aesthetics so i'd make sense if the player gets extra content in the shape of a mission and extra apparel.
A bad example of a Preorder bonus is the Street Fighter IV Thumb Fighters. They were literally badly made, little cheap finger puppets, nothing else. Capcom seems to have covered up their existence pretty well but the original promotion trailer is still up. Not only is this unamusing and a vile marketing technique but it gives the idea of preorder bonuses a bad name. In this industry it's easy to see companies ruining franchises, ideas and trends just so it can make a quick buck, the worst part about this is that if more companies continue to do this then we might see the demise of preorder bonuses as they might get such a bad name that the sales of game end up being affected negatively, this is one of the issues facing the gaming industry, game producers think that gamers are young children that can be cheated out of money with cheap toys.
Credits-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-order#In_video_gaming
http://www.gottabemobile.com/2016/05/20/341840/
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/watch-dogs-preorder-bonuses/1100-6417493/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ErWAt8MLpY
{-Industry-}
VR
Industry trends are trends that focus on bringing new waves of innovation and technology into the video game industry. One example of an industry trend is VR/Virtual Reality, this type of trend is one where the idea was been there for a long time, its just what technology has just caught up enough for that idea to be realised.
A good example of VR is the Samsung VR Headset make for their rage of android phones, the decision of having a VR headset on a smartphone is brilliant because almost everyone interested in new technology like the VR owns a smartphone meaning that lots of quick money can be made, along with a new market for VR games on the Android play store. The two competitors of the Samsung VR Headset are both held down by problems that lie in the foundation of their design and purpose, the PlayStation VR is limited to people who own both a PlayStation 4 and the VR games while the Oculus has the disadvantage of being way too expensive for the average non-gamer to want to spend any money on it, the Samsung VR Headset though has both these problems dealt with due to its fundamental design of being on a smartphone, having tons of indie and experimental developers putting free VR demos on the PlayStore and having the unit be affordable and easy to use.
A bad example of VR is the Nintendo Virtual Boy, one of the early attempts at VR. It was one of Nintendo's first commercial failures and its no surprise. It was released in 1995 and was quickly shunned for its cause of dizziness, eye strain and sickness in less than an hour of gameplay. The technology inside the unit was lacklustre as well, it was only able to output one colour, red. It's price tag was also absurd for the time, in today's USD it would have cost 265.63 Dollars! Considering all this it was no surprise that even the die-hard of fans steered far away from the Virtual Boy, it would have been silly to spend all this money when the Nintendo 64 was releasing just next year of 1996. And so the Virtual Boy failed to sell and had half its planned library cut in half due to the lack of interest leaving the console with a measly 20 games. This is another reason why financial planning is so important, if Nintendo took the time to think they would realise how much of a commercial failure the Virtual Boy would have been and they would have not wasted they money to develop it, especially with the Nintendo 64 so close to its release.
{-Market-}
Motion Controls
Market trends are based on supply and demand, if the public shows interest in an idea then it's probably going to be a good move to invest money and create the supply needed for that demand. One example of a market trend is motion controls. By using Bluetooth and motion sensing technology you have a new way to control a video game that has never been done before.
A bad example of a market trend and motion controls is the Kinnect. To boost sales for the Xbox Microsoft decided to create something more evolutionary than the Wii so that more people purchase the Xbox, they thought that by removing the remote and by having the console track the player then they could beat Nintendo at their own game. The Kinnect was met with poor sales and lacklustre games as online reviewers complained about the unresponsive tracking and the boring games. The Kinnect had a big flaw in its financial planning and the marketing, while the Wii was targeted towards family fun, the Kinnect was advertised just like any other gaming console meaning that a gimmicky console was shown to hardcore gamers, obviously this did not turn out well as it was ignored.
Credits-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_controller
http://kotaku.com/motion-controls-the-most-popular-and-most-broken-idea-1445766816
https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Wii/Wii-94559.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii
http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/xbox-one/accessories/kinect-for-xbox-one
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinect
http://uk.businessinsider.com/why-microsoft-xbox-kinect-didnt-take-off-2015-9?r=US&IR=T
http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/consoles/5-ways-xbox-one-kinect-failed-microsoft-and-stiffed-early-adopters-1248505
The gaming industry relies on different way to finance itself, from selling stocks to licensing there are many financing trends. Some of these have been with the industry from the start of gaming. An example of a financial trend is preorder bonuses, they are special editions of games that come with extra content, memorabilia and/or exclusive character skins. They don't cost much to produce and they give eager fans a reward for preordering the game.
A good example of a preorder bonus is the ones in Overwatch and Watch_Dogs, Overwatch offered an exclusive statue of Winston that has taken time and money to produce while Watch_Dogs offers the player exclusive items and clothing along with a brand new mission. These bonus items are specifically made to target the player's interest. If the player preordered Overwatch then there's a high chance they did so due to the characters and story, it makes sense that the bonus they get would be one of the characters from the game, on the other hand the type of person who preorders Watch_Dogs is probably interested in the hacking mechanic, the gameplay and the aesthetics so i'd make sense if the player gets extra content in the shape of a mission and extra apparel.
A bad example of a Preorder bonus is the Street Fighter IV Thumb Fighters. They were literally badly made, little cheap finger puppets, nothing else. Capcom seems to have covered up their existence pretty well but the original promotion trailer is still up. Not only is this unamusing and a vile marketing technique but it gives the idea of preorder bonuses a bad name. In this industry it's easy to see companies ruining franchises, ideas and trends just so it can make a quick buck, the worst part about this is that if more companies continue to do this then we might see the demise of preorder bonuses as they might get such a bad name that the sales of game end up being affected negatively, this is one of the issues facing the gaming industry, game producers think that gamers are young children that can be cheated out of money with cheap toys.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-order#In_video_gaming
http://www.gottabemobile.com/2016/05/20/341840/
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/watch-dogs-preorder-bonuses/1100-6417493/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ErWAt8MLpY
{-Industry-}
VR
Industry trends are trends that focus on bringing new waves of innovation and technology into the video game industry. One example of an industry trend is VR/Virtual Reality, this type of trend is one where the idea was been there for a long time, its just what technology has just caught up enough for that idea to be realised.
A good example of VR is the Samsung VR Headset make for their rage of android phones, the decision of having a VR headset on a smartphone is brilliant because almost everyone interested in new technology like the VR owns a smartphone meaning that lots of quick money can be made, along with a new market for VR games on the Android play store. The two competitors of the Samsung VR Headset are both held down by problems that lie in the foundation of their design and purpose, the PlayStation VR is limited to people who own both a PlayStation 4 and the VR games while the Oculus has the disadvantage of being way too expensive for the average non-gamer to want to spend any money on it, the Samsung VR Headset though has both these problems dealt with due to its fundamental design of being on a smartphone, having tons of indie and experimental developers putting free VR demos on the PlayStore and having the unit be affordable and easy to use.
A bad example of VR is the Nintendo Virtual Boy, one of the early attempts at VR. It was one of Nintendo's first commercial failures and its no surprise. It was released in 1995 and was quickly shunned for its cause of dizziness, eye strain and sickness in less than an hour of gameplay. The technology inside the unit was lacklustre as well, it was only able to output one colour, red. It's price tag was also absurd for the time, in today's USD it would have cost 265.63 Dollars! Considering all this it was no surprise that even the die-hard of fans steered far away from the Virtual Boy, it would have been silly to spend all this money when the Nintendo 64 was releasing just next year of 1996. And so the Virtual Boy failed to sell and had half its planned library cut in half due to the lack of interest leaving the console with a measly 20 games. This is another reason why financial planning is so important, if Nintendo took the time to think they would realise how much of a commercial failure the Virtual Boy would have been and they would have not wasted they money to develop it, especially with the Nintendo 64 so close to its release.
Credits-
http://www.samsung.com/global/galaxy/gear-vr/
https://www.playstation.com/en-gb/explore/playstation-vr/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality
http://stats.areppim.com/calc/calc_usdlrxdeflator.php
https://www.oculus.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Boy
http://nintendo.wikia.com/wiki/Virtual_Boy
{-Market-}
Motion Controls
Market trends are based on supply and demand, if the public shows interest in an idea then it's probably going to be a good move to invest money and create the supply needed for that demand. One example of a market trend is motion controls. By using Bluetooth and motion sensing technology you have a new way to control a video game that has never been done before.
A good example of market trends and motion controls is the Wii. When Nintendo announced the Wii they were smart and targeted it towards the general public, it was presented as a fun toy that the whole family can enjoy instead of a gaming console, due to this clever marketing the Wii sold over 100 million units and became Nintendo's best selling home console. Not only that but after it's release motion controls became a big hit, with PlayStation making their own version called 'The PlayStation Move' that seems very 'inspired' by the Wii.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_controller
http://kotaku.com/motion-controls-the-most-popular-and-most-broken-idea-1445766816
https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Wii/Wii-94559.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wii
http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/xbox-one/accessories/kinect-for-xbox-one
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinect
http://uk.businessinsider.com/why-microsoft-xbox-kinect-didnt-take-off-2015-9?r=US&IR=T
http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming/consoles/5-ways-xbox-one-kinect-failed-microsoft-and-stiffed-early-adopters-1248505
