How much do you know about the game industry's cheap strategy history?

R-zone is a cheap "boy 3D" game machine that mimics the concept of Nintendo virtual. The product listed at the beginning of the price of 60 U.S. dollars, only virtual boy of 1/3, at the same time it is the first Tiger Electronics can replace the palm machine, there are many people think that this product is Tiger Electronics in the field of the original game.

The copycat is difficult to leave footprints in the user's mind, which is almost an iron law, if not the 1997 launch of the "Game.com", tiger Electronics will be deliberately forgotten in the game history corner. "Game.com" is the first time that Tiger Electronics has tried to challenge a top-tier manufacturer in the Gaming machine field, product planning is full of ambition: this is the world's first touch screen palm machine, with such as alarm clock, calendar and even Internet access, such as PDA functions, the first round of the list of the games announced, impressively including "Demon City", " Real quick hit, "Biochemical Crisis", "the Duke of Doom" and "Diablo" and other line of the masterpiece. Unfortunately, Tiger electronics, accustomed to being in the middle of a cheap market, overestimate the endurance of the player, and the performance of the game.com is far from what it wants to accomplish. Sharp's 8-bit CPU in the task of switching extremely hard, 200x160 resolution of the four grayscale black and white screen can not complete the game details, as for the Internet access function, unexpectedly also need to connect a network from the computer wire, and can only do some simple text reading. The goods are not on the board itself is disappointing enough, even more extreme, "game.com" also use the most stupid TV ads-directly humiliate those who choose other handheld players as "idiot". This behavior makes many already ordered "game.com" players angry and return, avoid a lot of accidental injury, "game.com" on the quality of the transplant game is very poor, and finally only 20 games are actually on sale.

Because of the interest in the "smart" handheld game.com described by Tiger Electronics, many developers have easily promised to transplant their heavyweight products. However, the performance of the Palm machine is extremely disappointing, game.com version of the "Biochemical Crisis 2" and also become the biggest spot in the series game.

Because of the interest in the "smart" handheld game.com described by Tiger Electronics, many developers have easily promised to transplant their heavyweight products. However, the performance of the Palm machine is extremely disappointing, game.com version of the "Biochemical Crisis 2" and also become the biggest spot in the series game.

In the 1998, Tiger Electronics was acquired by Hasbro and became a department specializing in the production of electronic dogs and recording toys, and the Tiger Palm machine, which flooded the market for more than 10 years, finally began to disappear. It is worth mentioning that in 2002, a European electronics manufacturer renamed "Tiger Electronics" and in 2005 issued its own palm machine "Gizmondo", the Palm machine to alternative sales strategy (if the user is willing to accept the palm machine positioning and advertising push, you can get a certain purchase discount) and low sales (less than 25,000 units, the history of the lowest sales of the Palm Machine) is known.

The traces of the tiger's electronics decline and the rapid rise of the North American game market is inversely proportional--tiger palm machine in the entire 90 's sales target are not too many resolution of the low age users, over the past decade, the players who have been making history have been developing the main audience for the video game industry from children to adults. 1995, the first E3 game exhibition successfully held, Sony PS, family Saturn and Nintendo N64 host release, the advent of market changes. Nintendo unveiled its new handheld "Game Boy Pocket" in 1996, smaller than his predecessor and significantly reduced retail prices. The price of Nintendo N64 and Sega Saturn continued to fall in 1997, under the pressure of Sony PS ... The development of the industry has been squeezing the market bubble, the goods are not inferior to the quality of cheap goods are increasingly difficult to survive.

Before and after 2000, cheap gaming consoles faded out of the limelight, but the concept of cheap games became more and more intense-online downloads and discounted sales were the norm, and free games and mobile games were constantly threatening the traditional gaming machine market. New market models have created new rules of the game, and the times have been rewritten.

With the development and maturity of the game industry, electronic games become more and more civilian, more inexpensive online sales mode has become the first choice for many players. Sony Computer Entertainment launched the "Ultra POP" cheap sales system is very popular with the players.

Most users of the traditional gaming market are paranoid about the high demand for the content and the 0 tolerance of false ads, the users of free social and mobile games are basically another group-casual gamers or women and old people who don't play games at all, who are sensitive to price but have little demand for the content of the game. There is also a moderate attitude toward advertising and false publicity on the wrong side of the plate--at this level, these players seem to be no different from the children who bought the Tiger Palm and were proud to swap games with others. The wheels of history seem to run past the ruts that have been left behind--nearly 60% of all American portable gaming revenues in 2011 came from Apple's iOS platform and Google's Android platform.

In any case, the cheap strategy is the most effective marketing method of all sales, to attract users with price is not any improper, but it should be noted that the quality of their own meaning must not be overlooked. If we agree with the similarities of history, then perhaps we should be wary of the lessons of history. Strauss Zelnick, the CEO of American Take-two, was clearly predictable, and in a recent interview he explained to reporters: "A free company like Zynga has done a great job in the past, Thanks largely to their use of the free Facebook platform to make their products very inexpensive. But as Facebook has changed its game recommendation policy, Zynga is quickly facing a dilemma. On the other hand, the vast majority of free game quality is debatable, in the Free game field, some manufacturers even put the production of low-cost games as a competitive strategy, but I have never seen a game company can not rely on high-quality products to succeed, although not all manufacturers can produce sophisticated products, But you have to try at least, don't you? ”

At any time, the cheaper price is the most attractive for users. But even in the cheapest consumer environment, the impact of quality factors on user choice still exists-any product with low quality and cheap as its core selling point will inevitably be discarded by users after the market environment has been improved.

PostScript：

When I write Yiyantang series of articles, I often get bogged down in the embarrassment of narrow views and narrow knowledge, which makes many articles appear commonplace. Looking at the fast-growing gaming industry in the eyes of a traditional gamer will inevitably be fraught with outdated complaints and platitudes. Each era has the rules of each era, and can not be based on the past experience or history of an introduction, but the author always felt that there are some things will not be changed because of the change of rules, it will be in the near future, waiting for us, waiting for the growth of a new group of users.