Part A: INDUSTRY INFORMATION
1. Economic Features
Market size and Growth Potential (as of 2003):
* The video game industry is currently a $31 billion global market.
* Market size has tripled in value over the last decade from $10 billion in 1995 to $31 billion as of 2003.
* In five years the industry is expected to grow approximately 14.8% ($36,042/$31,374), at a rate of approximately 2.96% per year (14.8%/5).
* We feel that the industry is entering the early maturity stage of the growth cycle for the overall global market.
* Some observers feel that growth potential is massive, predicting that the video game market is "on track to rival the movie, music, and television industries"
* Further analysis reveals that some markets of the industry such as console hardware and software are on the decline in terms of growth, whereas the mobile gaming industry is currently in the rapid growth stage of the growth cycle.
* The mobile gaming industry is expected grow to roughly 6 times its current size in only 5 years ($587/3783).
* This all implies that the industry's growth prospects are focused on emerging technologies such as mobile gaming and online gaming where there is less industry saturation and maturity
Buyer Characteristics:
* It is estimated that there are currently 400 million gamers around the globe.
* Up to 75% (300 milliom/400 million) of gamers are considered to be ?very frequent' players and therefore contribute to the majority of revenues by purchasing upwards of 10 new games annually.
* Majority ...