Discuss about the Importance of IT in Computer Gaming Industry.
With advancing techniques of business and systems, new methods are being implemented to further expand the business field with more effectiveness and popularity. The Information Technology or IT system have been developed and enhanced with time and have been applied by many commercial organizations for enhancement of their business (Balland, De Vaan and Boschma 2013). On the other hand, computing gaming industry is one of the rising businesses and has grown only in the last two decades. With upgradation of computer systems and improvement in game mechanics, graphics, gameplay and other factors, computer games are becoming more and more popular. However, the computer gaming industry would not have been successful without proper implementation of IT systems and techniques (Marchand and Hennig-Thurau 2013). The big gaming companies have successfully implemented IT systems in their business in order to enhance the sales of their products. Moreover, they developed new marketing strategies helped them gain extra profits from their sales.
In this report, the application of Information Technology in gaming industry has been discussed along with all major and minor details and close analysis of some popular computer gaming companies.
Information Technology in Computer Gaming Industry 1200
Importance of IT in Business
With the increasing developments in business, new systems are introduced by business organizations for enhancing the business sales and increasing annual revenue. IT systems help the business organizations to build a marketing strategy, manage resources according to plans and designs and manage sales of products. In the computer games industry, application of IT in the business will enable the developers to gain more revenue from the sales and develop better marketing strategies (Morrow et al. 2016). The popular computer game companies have successfully implemented IT systems for enhancing their business. In addition to just sales of the gaming softwares, the companies release demo versions and trailers much before the original release date to attract more users to buy their product (Badcock et al. 2013). For instance, the most popular gaming company EA Sports release demo versions of the yearly FIFA installments two months prior to the release of the full version. This marketing strategy helps them to gain more popularity and attract more games to buy the game. This marketing strategy as well as the storage and management of the business information of the company are done by the suitable IT system employed by the company (El-Nasr, Drachen and Canossa 2013).
Importance of IT in Business Survival
Few decades back, business could have easily survived without any implementation of IT system. However, with advancing business systems, implementation of IT is necessary for the survival of the companies, specially the large business organizations. With evolving business systems, the business organizations must implement IT systems in order to compete with the rival companies (Vogel 2014). IT implementation in business also allows the company to increase productivity, sales and profit from the market. Moreover, IT systems can be used for more efficient and accurate business operations as well as delivering more attractive products with the touch of technology. For instance, EA Sports and KONAMI are two gaming companies that both release yearly installments of popular football games. Now, in order to compete with each other, both of the companies have applied IT systems in their business. However, EA Sports has been able to implement more advanced IT system in its operations and business structure. This is the main reason behind its more global popularity than KONAMI. On the other hand, KONAMI’s implementation of IT system has allowed it to survive in the market and compete with its rival for a good amount of annual profit.
There are several factors that must be analyzed and implemented before implementing IT system in business. These factors, in relation to computer games industry, are discussed as follows:
Cost Analysis – The company must analyze the costs that will be involved during implementation of IT. For computer games company, they must analyze costs of buying new systems, update existing softwares, total costs of developing a new game and its plug-ins and other related expenses (Bellotti et al. 2013). The total cost must be estimated before an IT system is implemented.
Planning – Use of IT in the course of the development of a game requires a lot of planning. Without suitable planning, the undertaken steps will have no particular objective and the whole project can be failure (Fromme and Unger 2012). Planning includes designing of a suitable business plan, making a proper marketing strategy that will enable the company to gain a large amount of market share and other factors.
Designing – In computer games industry, designing contains two parts. One is the designing of the gaming software and the other is the designing of marketing strategy. Design of gaming software should include an attractive interface, ease of use and features that will attract the users to buy the software (Deng et al. 2016). On the other hand, design of business strategy will include marketing strategies, release of demo r beta versions for user testing, trailers and others that will draw the interests of the customers and in this case, gamers.
Installation and Training – These include installation of suitable systems that would be able to support the softwares needed to design the gaming softwares. Training is essential for the newly hired employees that are new to the designing (Shaw and Barry 2015). Moreover, some training is also needed for existing employees to update them regarding the new upgraded systems.
Use of IT in Business
Computer games industry uses IT for different functions in the commercial set up. The employees of the company are software developers that develop the gaming softwares or software modifications and patches. Some other employees are entitled to deal with the marketing aspects of the company (Davenport 2013). The suppliers are entitled to manage the distribution of sales units to the customers. For gaming industry, the companies send their game discs to the online and normal retailers who sell the products to the customers (Schwalbe 2015). Since, none of the computer game companies have their own retail stores, they depend on the suppliers for their sales.
Benefits and Advantages of IT in Business
The benefits and advantages of IT in computer games business are as follows:
Risks of IT in Business
There are several risks related to IT systems in business. Some of these are as follows:
Security and Privacy Threats – Increasing dependence on computing systems increases the risks of security threats. With more network connections, risks of security threats and breach of privacy attacks increase (Tran, Le Ngoc Thanh and Phuong 2013). Unethical hackers and third party personnel from the rival companies use these connections to enter into the system of the company to access confidential information and marketing strategies.
System Errors – If error occurs in one system, the whole system shuts down. Development of one game involves use of all the systems at once and shut down of one system completely destroys the whole progress of the development (Venkatesh, Thong and Xu 2012).
Maintenance and Monitoring of IT in Business
Maintenance and monitoring of IT in business is necessary in order to keep track of the operations going on within the company. Maintenance of IT with business can be done by updating records based on the regular updates financial and business reports (El-Nasr, Drachen and Canossa 2013). Suitable changes can be made to the IT systems according to the demands as evident on the updated records. Moreover, changes can also be made by balancing regular statistics with the past statistics. For monitoring of IT systems, regular update system should be introduced from the IT maintenance department. The main objective of monitoring will be to analyze latest necessities of technology in the IT system (Tran, Le Ngoc Thanh and Phuong 2013). With suitable monitoring, requirements can be met by updating the systems with the latest technologies.
Conclusion
From the essay, it is clear IT system is an essential part in the computer games industry. With upgradation of computer systems and improvement in game mechanics, graphics, gameplay and other factors, computer games are becoming more and more popular. However, the computer gaming industry would not have been successful without proper implementation of IT systems and techniques. Few decades back, business could have easily survived without any implementation of IT system. However, with advancing business systems, implementation of IT is necessary for the survival of the companies, specially the large business organizations. With evolving business systems, the business organizations must implement IT systems in order to compete with the rival companies. IT implementation in business also allows the company to increase productivity, sales and profit from the market. Moreover, IT systems can be used for more efficient and accurate business operations as well as delivering more attractive products with the touch of technology. However, in addition to advantages and benefits, IT systems have their owns risks and threats as well that must be mitigated with proper planning in order to maintain the IT system in the company.
The recommendations for the computer game companies for more efficient use of IT system are follows:
References
Badcock, N.A., Mousikou, P., Mahajan, Y., de Lissa, P., Thie, J. and McArthur, G., 2013. Validation of the Emotiv EPOC® EEG gaming system for measuring research quality auditory ERPs. PeerJ, 1, p.e38.
Balland, P.A., De Vaan, M. and Boschma, R., 2013. The dynamics of interfirm networks along the industry life cycle: The case of the global video game industry, 1987–2007. Journal of Economic Geography, 13(5), pp.741-765.
Bellotti, F., Kapralos, B., Lee, K., Moreno-Ger, P. and Berta, R., 2013. Assessment in and of serious games: an overview. Advances in Human-Computer Interaction, 2013, p.1.
Davenport, T.H., 2013. Process innovation: reengineering work through information technology. Harvard Business Press.
Deng, V.Y., Liao, P.C., Lin, R.J.R. and Nguyen, B.Q., International Business Machines Corporation, 2016. Ccomputer-implemented method for determining game mechanics in business process gamification. U.S. Patent 20,160,089,608.
El-Nasr, M.S., Drachen, A. and Canossa, A., 2013. Game analytics: Maximizing the value of player data. Springer Science & Business Media.
Fromme, J. and Unger, A. eds., 2012. Computer games and new media cultures: A handbook of digital games studies. Springer Science & Business Media.
Marchand, A. and Hennig-Thurau, T., 2013. Value creation in the video game industry: Industry economics, consumer benefits, and research opportunities. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27(3), pp.141-157.
Morrow, J.W., McAllister, L., Hein, M.A., White, W.R. and Luciano Jr, R.A., Bally Gaming, Inc., 2016. Universal game monitoring unit and system. U.S. Patent 9,235,955.
Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Shaw, W. and Barry, V., 2015. Moral issues in business. Cengage Learning.
Tran, S.T., Le Ngoc Thanh, N.Q.B. and Phuong, D.B., 2013. Introduction to information technology. In Proc. of the 9th inter. CDIO conf.(CDIO).
Venkatesh, V., Thong, J.Y. and Xu, X., 2012. Consumer acceptance and use of information technology: extending the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology. MIS quarterly, 36(1), pp.157-178.
Vogel, H.L., 2014. Entertainment industry economics: A guide for financial analysis. Cambridge University Press.
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