Analyst Believes Consumers Have More Difficulty in Differentiating Video Game Franchises than Film
According to analyst Stephen Cheliotis, the general consumer can’t tell the difference between Modern Warfare and every other military shooter on the market because of the stark similarities between all of the games in the genre. On the other hand however, studies indicate that consumers don’t have the same problem with movies.
In an interview with Eurogamer, Cheliotis, the chief executive for The Centre for Brand Analysis explained his reasoning behind these claims.
If you look at awareness they’re not quite up there with the likes of Star Wars or Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. Outside of the real keen gamers there’s a bit of confusion between different types of game franchises.
For those that are part-time gamers or loosely interested but not necessarily real keen players, they mould a little bit into one. With the latest release, they say, ‘is that part of that franchise or is it that one? I can’t really remember’.
He goes on, citing consumers’ inability to distinguish Call of Duty from the rest of the military shooter pack.
It’s just one of those big franchises and it’s a military shooter, and they’re all kind of the same. I don’t think people say, ‘Call of Duty is this, and this other one is that’.
That’s the difference. They blur. That’s where you’ve got a brand issue. There’s not much to distinguish them for the average player that’s just jumping in and out.
While one can see where his ideas are coming from, the fact that Call of Duty continues to shatter records year-in and year-out makes it hard to deny that fact that consumers can recognize the Call of Duty brand.
11 Responses to “Analyst Believes Consumers Have More Difficulty in Differentiating Video Game Franchises than Film”
TL;DR – Developers have to stop looking at others success and try to follow them in hopes of also being successful and have to take a chance to become a success on their own.
THAT’S the problem with companies looking at CoD as best shooter of the year and getting awards and more cash in a day then some companies can make over a few months! And the consumers are just as much to blame BECAUSE they buy it no matter what and reinforce the idea that the CoD formula is working and if other games were like it they’d sell better.
WHICH IS BS. Because when everything is basically the same, people will go with the name brand as a “safe bet” aka buying CoD because they know that the formula works for CoD. It’s like when Dante’s Inferno came out and everyone called it the poor man’s God of War because it was so similar…
If companies did what Naughty Dog did with Uncharted then things would be MUCH better! Because when I played Uncharted 1, I was thinking “Damn this is like an Indiana Jones movie!” because it was as if I was playing a part in an Indiana Jones movie, since ND made it as a game with a solid story and gameplay mechanics, it was great and fun. And with Uncharted 2 it improved much more. And again in Uncharted 3 it improved!
Or like how Assassin’s Creed improves with every release (Granted, AC Rev didn’t change radically for the Single Player. But the Multiplayer got alot better and deeper) because they listen to feedback and try to add new tricks without trying to copy something like Prince of Persia.
tl;yad
? >.>
HUWAV!
ATADR!
MUECATIGTAOPK!
You see how hard it is Silenus when we make these things up without telling anyone what the letters stand for?
you’d have to be living under a rock somewhere to not be able to spot the difference between call of doody and killzone 3. somehow this article does not make much sense, unless he’s talking about senior citizens, or those soccer moms that don’t have a clue. most other FPS games do not even look like COD. what planet is he on?
I imagine one where he doesn’t play every first person shooter game and isn’t aware that those who play a large number of games call them FPS.
I have never played a CoD, or Battlefield game. I’ve only ever played Killzone. Even I’m able to tell the difference between all three. This article ranks in the ludicrous category.
Ok, here we have “Cheliotis, the chief executive for The Centre for Brand Analysis”. Its nice to see that you, FiftyQuid and kyuubi_clone, are also experts of the domain and that you took some time to shed your knowledge and experience uppon us. I would like to thank you and say screw you Cheliotis.
God bless the tubes.
“The general consumer can’t tell the difference between Call of Duty games.”
There. Fixed.
^^^^
lol, exactly
Wait a minute this guy is the chief executive for The Centre for Brand Analysis? No seriously I have to know that the games industry isn’t just screwing with me now. That isn’t a role job is it because it sounds a lot like just playing video games.
“There’s not much to distinguish them for the average player that’s just jumping in and out”
Then there’s this bullshit, does he even have any evidence to back he’s comments up? No I guess he’s just an analysis why does he need evidence to proof what he’s saying is right? He’s right because he’s right. Even Jack Thompson had the diginity to come up with “evidence” for he’s bullshit comments.