http://www.gowerpublishing.com/isbn/9780566091674

Innovation and Marketing in the Video Game Industry avoiding the Performance Trap

DaVID Wesley anD GlorIa Barczak
Northeastern University, Boston, USA

Introduction
The public has no sense of how fast things are moving … It’s like going from bows-and-arrows to the space age. Ralph Baer, inventor of the first video game console

For most of the video game industry’s short history, console makers and developers have been searching for a holy grail of high performance and realism. However, the recent surge in popularity of underpowered consoles and simple games over cutting edge technology and big budget titles suggests that a new paradigm may be at hand. Examples include the success of the Wii over the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, the DS over the PSP, casual PC games over first-person shooters, and music games over big budget action adventure titles. Everywhere one looks, simplicity and ease-of-use are triumphing over depth and complexity. Netbooks, portable music players, and point-andshoot digital cameras are a few of the product categories that have emerged to serve the needs of the mass market of consumers who require simple and easy-to-use products and services. In his best-selling book Crossing the Chasm, Geoffrey Moore (2002) argues that success in high-tech markets depends on “making the transition from an early market dominated by a few visionary customers to a mainstream market dominated by a large block of customers who are predominantly pragmatists in orientation.” This transition is called the chasm and the key to crossing the chasm is to make the mainstream market materialize. However, achieving this leap requires a different strategy than what one might use to lure early adopters of technology. The reason is that the mainstream market has different values and requirements than the early market. Although all industries are affected by this reality, the case of the video game industry is