Your answer to this question should include an overview of the market, both its nature and size. You should also describe the specific segment of the market that you are targetting and what your reasons are for targetting this segment of the market.
Please give your current best estimates of the total units sold into the total market and / or the particular segment you are targetting ...You should also use this section to detail the information you have collected and what market research you have carried out so far that supports your view that there is a demand for the idea/product.
Such information / research could include:
independent market research reports on the general area or on your idea's potential
user surveys / interviews
informal discussions with users
product literature, price lists etc
evidence of sales
letters from organisations expressing significant interest
We need to know the key conclusions of any market research, with limited detailed evidence, so that we can understand the conclusions you cite. However, please ensure that all relevant evidence is available for us to look at as part of a detailed assessment.
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The re-mixable film DVD is an interactive entertainment property aimed at three distinct segments of the existing retail computer game market; the lifestyle (or casual gamers) market, the gamers who buy games to modify them (and publish MODs) and the rhythm game market. The social impact of these groups interacting with the same product could be culturally significant. The original concept alone should lead non-gamers to buy an interesting-sounding product (as was the case with the game Black and White (Lionhead, 2002).
Currently the nearest market would be the lifestyle entertainment market targeted by Microsoft for the upcoming non-game title "XBox Music Mixer" (see 2.5 Console Products). Microsoft is trying to expand the market for the XBox by releasing products that are not marketed as games. Microsoft also sponsors major music events to promote its console as a music platform.
The online entertainment software markets are expanding globally as broadband-compatible game consoles (Sony PS2, Microsoft XBox, Nintendo GameCube) achieve higher penetration and are marketed at an increasingly broad demographic.
Music Mixer is one of several titles announced recently that indicate an emerging mass-market for online music entertainment.
E.g.
The product is designed as a cross-media publishing system that will by its nature encourage the creation of new markets, new interactive genres and more hybrid products as customers re-mix it and publish new MODs.
The global market for licensed entertainment property generated $42.5 billion in worldwide retail sales in 2002. The market segment for movie properties and their DVD releases had a huge impact on the software/video game market in 2002 (15%, $372 million).
The market segment for music generated licensed properties topped $1.5 billion in 2002, generating an estimate $117 million in royalties. The use of an established artist for the soundtrack makes this segment attractive.
The film product is aimed at a wider market than the console (core) product, although both are aimed at the "popcorn" demographic (15-24y.o. M/F)
My market testing of music-led rhythm games (Gitaroo Man, Rez, Frequency) with non-gamers revealed considerable enthusiasm for these titles, alongside a lack of awareness of this genre, due to disinterest in stereotypical computer games where the focus is on complex virtual goals.
The target audience is 14 � 30 year olds who have an interest in sci-fi films like Terminator 3 and Matrix Reloaded and use the Internet. The linear film targets a mixed gender audience while the DVD product is initially targeted at a male-dominated group of gamers who play and extend the games that supports MODS, notably the first-person-shooting-games Half-Life (Valve, 1998), Quake 3 (ID, 2000) and Unreal Tournament (Epic, 2001).
This first wave audience for the �film as stage� concept is a highly competitive, social (most MODs are made in teams) and influential group who have already widened the game market by promoting new genres � MODs (user-contributed game modifications) and machinima (movies that play within game engines).
European game console software sales for 2003 are estimated at $3.4billion (see the following table for the trend). The total US console and handheld software revenue grew 10% in 2003 to $6.4billion. In 2001, a top 5 console game sold around 1,000,000 units in the US and 175,000 units in the UK. A top 100 console game in the same period sold around 70,000 units in the US and 14,000 units in the UK.
The community department of the new company will be conducting ongoing market reseach with various target communities (e.g. VJs, MODders, Machinima film-makers) to determine how the product needs to be designed in order to be immediately useful to them as a creative tool.
The research conducted to-date shows that there is a real shortage of content that is legal to MOD. In other words, there is an opportunity to provide more accessible art.
Posted by .M. at October 17, 2003 02:23 PM