Why should you do a competitive analysis for your video game?

A good study of a video game's competition allows us to analyse the features previously offered on the market and the players' reactions to them. Some of these features are appreciated by players and contribute to the success of the game, while others have the opposite effect.

Therefore, it is essential to learn about the features of competing games available on the market. Beyond price and turnover, it is crucial to determine how players feel about the features of your game. Knowing which features to prioritise maximises the game's chances of success. This information also allows you to incorporate an original component, minimising the likelihood of commercial failure.

Video game studios conduct partial competition studies

There are many ways to analyse competing video games. The most common method used by studios is to first identify games with similar themes and genres to their production. In a second step, studios estimate the sales figures of competing games and collect their press ratings on Metacritic.

This analysis allows the studio to draw inspiration from competing games that have both collected the highest rating on Metacritic and possibly sold the most copies. However, at no point is the feedback from the players analysed by the studios. This is tantamount to falsely considering that the opinion of a few journalists sums up the opinion of all the players (Article Uswitch, 2022).

BigWhoop analyses and gives you a summary of the players' comments

The BigWhoop agency offers to help you by analysing a very large number of players' comments about competing games. Our aim is to identify the features of the game that have been most appreciated or criticised. To do this, we analyse the most relevant reviews / comments available on the web such as Metacritic, Steam, Gamespot, etc. 

We then aggregate all the comments consulted in a table to understand their nature and determine the aspect of the game concerned. These successive analyses allow us to calculate an appreciation rate for each aspect identified as well as their rate of appearance.

Once the competition study for your video game has been completed, our experts will provide you with the conclusions. These findings are presented in the form of a graphical summary of the characteristics of the competing games with the highest number of positive and negative reviews. These findings give you a real insight into the expectations of the players.

Bonus Stage : The competition study is an essential preliminary work to conduct a realistic market study. Be careful not to confuse a competition study with a market study. The competition study makes it possible to identify the characteristics of competing video games. Market research can determine the number of players willing to pay for your game (more about market research).