Type de prestation: Market research

Bigwhoop analyses the characteristics of your market and competing products. Let us know the stage of your project and find out how we can support you.

All
Idea
Pre-production
Production

At the idea stage

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).

Pre-production phase

What is a real market study of a PC / Consoles video game?

The market research of a video game gives an overview of its commercial potential with regard to the buying habits of consumers (players). The objective is to quantitatively assess the number of people likely to buy your video game.

Market analysis is a measurement tool to reduce the risk of failure of your game. By simulating market placement (test marketing), our study can indicate as realistically as possible the chances of success in the pre-production phase.

What the studios call "market research" is not market research.

Studios usually confuse market research with competition research. Market research aims to determine the number of people who are really interested in your product. Competitive research is used to determine the technical, artistic and financial characteristics of competing games. To find out what the market as a whole thinks of PC / console game projects, studios generally use two methods.

One of them is to create a presentation page for the game on Steam with the aim of encouraging users to add the game to their wishlist. There are two major problems with this method. The first problem is that you assume from the outset that your market is PC-only. The second problem is that this method does not provide you with clear information about the characteristics of your buyers (age and gender for example). This information is essential if you want to boost your sales through online advertising.

Another method is to create a page on a crowdfunding platform. For a new studio, creating a crowdfunding page is a risk. Crowdfunding requires the aggregation of a community before the start of the campaign. A great deal of communication and marketing effort is then required. If you fail, how do you convince an organisation or company to finance your video game?

BigWhoop studies the market for your PC / Console video game from the pre-production stage

The BigWhoop agency has developed its own measurement method to carry out real market research for PC and console games during their pre-production phase. We use real data and scientific studies to predict the success of the game. Our method is divided into 3 key steps.

The first step is to identify the features expected by your market. This identification stage involves an analysis of competing games and, in particular, of the comments left by players (more on our competition study).

A second step concerns the production of media (images or videos) highlighting these features within the art direction of your video game. These media are distributed on several social networks to a limited number of users.

A third step which aims to measure the conversion of users from social networks. We create a temporary web page (landing page) in the colours of your video game. This page allows us to collect the contact details of people who are really interested in your game.

Bonus Stage : The data from our market research allows us to determine the interest of users for your video game from the pre-production phase. This data also allows us to determine the marketing costs necessary to reach your break-even point according to the financial characteristics of your game (production costs and sales price).

Production phase

What is involved in creating a trailer for your video game?

The trailer creation stage is a process that consists of testing the enthusiasm of players for the features of your video game. These features are highlighted through the creation of short videos published on social networks in the form of advertisements. However, in order to be as relevant as possible, these videos must meet rigorous construction and specific criteria.

What are the challenges of creating a trailer?

The important thing is to succeed in extracting some of the main features of the video game from the essential mechanics that govern its game design. Each of these features must then be presented in short, impeccably staged trailers. The main objective is to highlight these features while offering a rhythm and an adapted production. This is done by targeting and staging different situations in gameplay sequences. Capture software then records these situations in high quality. Then it is crucial to organise them in a fluid and dynamic way using video editing software.

For example, and in the context of a shooting game, let's imagine that one of the features to be highlighted is high realism. The situations shown in the trailer must therefore reflect this aspect. By recording, for example, gameplay sequences that highlight the impact of surrounding noises on the player, the heaviness of the character or the ruthlessness of the confrontations. To do this, it is strongly recommended to use deliberately heavy and cumbersome passages followed by lively and impactful sequences.

Trailer creation is therefore a process that requires knowledge of the expectations of the players. It is also a creative process that requires video production and editing, but also a lot of time. The aim is to produce well-paced and relevant videos.

Our trailer creation method enhances the video rendering of your game

BigWhoop has the necessary resources and personnel to create video game trailers. We offer to create your trailers for the advertising campaigns that are essential to the success of our study. Our methodical approach allows us to target the features expected by your market and to define the best way to promote them.

Following the different steps of our market research, we use your explanations and the results of our competition research to create the video. Depending on the resources and means of your studio, you can directly provide us with recorded sequences that concern the chosen features. If you do not have the time, you can also provide us with a playable version of your game. We can produce the required recordings for you. Even if the demo is incomplete and/or still very buggy, our know-how guarantees a professional rendering. The final video will give a qualitative reflection of your game that will surely please the audience.