Paper prepared for 2009 NFF Conference, Turku, Finland.

Please do not quote without permission of

authors.

BASICS IN THE MARKETING OF VIDEO GAMES THE NATURE OF THE

OFFERING, INTERNAL MARKETING OF PROJECTS, AND A PRODUCT
MANAGERS VIEW OF THE OVERALL PROCESS
Peter Zackariasson, Gothenburg Research Institute, Peter@Zackariasson.com
*Timothy L. Wilson, Ume School of Business, tim.wilson@usbe.umu.se
ABSTRACT
This paper treats the marketing of video games from initiation to post sale evaluations.
It is somewhat conceptual in capturing the nature of video games, but very much field
oriented in their development and distribution. Three levels of marketing are treated
the usual interaction between marketer and user, the nature of the offering itself, and
the internal marketing that is required to get projects initiated. It is thought that this
paper, although specialized in its application, is very much within the framework of
understanding normal business in this sector, which is the theme of this conference.
INTRODUCTION
The popularity of video games continues (cf. ESA, 2008; Snider, 2008). For a decade,
total sales in the industry have rivaled similar figures from Hollywood box office
revenues; presently, individual blockbuster introductions such as Grand Theft Auto IV in
the first week, estimated $500 MM, now exceed box-office smashes such as SpiderMan 3 ($337 MM) and Pirates of the Caribbean ($309 MM). Beck and Wade (2004,
17) assert that the gamer generation (generation G) is larger than the baby boomer
segment that has driven the European, Japanese, North American triad economy for
years. Whereas baby boomers were associated with a time period, generation G is
growing with each new generation. Basically, gaming is associated with culture
development in this sector. Consequently, it is expected that not only will entertainment
preferences be affected in coming years, but such things as personnel practices and
management.
The topic has also gained academic interest. Perhaps the work by Castronova (2005,
2001) in which he assessed the economy of a virtual world represented a watershed in
that regard. Yees (2007, 2002, 2001) recent work on why people play games is
frequently cited. Bartle (1996), however, preceded both these studies in assessing why,
or how, people play games and also reflected on the nature of the environment in which
the games take place (Bartle, 2003). Here in Scandinavia one of our conference
organizers has shown his early interest in the topic (Dymek and Rehn, 2003).
Amazon.com naturally has made the topic one of its interest areas and keeps current
with publications (cf. Beck and Wade, 2006; Castronova, 2007; Dibbell, 2006;
Meadows, 2008; Rymaszewski, et al, 2008; Taylor, 2005). Further, aspects surrounding
games have developed regular reporting in the popular business press (cf. Snider, 2008,
2008b; Wingfield, 2009a, b, 2008 a, b, c, 2006) and the industry has developed its own
industrial organization (cf. ESA, 2008). The topic certainly has been good to us. The

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lead author has partially fulfilled his requirements for both his licentiate degree
(Zackariasson, 2003) and PhD degree (Zackariasson, 2007) by studying game
development and the processes associated with it, and a number of academic papers
have come from these studies (cf. Walfisz et al, 2006; Zackariasson et al, 2006 a, b).
Rather interestingly, it has been a conference paper in this series, which has attracted
some attention in comparison with the journal articles. This paper resulted from an
interview of a project manager in the industry and was used to indicate the role this
specialty has played in guiding product development and marketing management. In
covering the marketing of games, he discussed three items in the interview successful
game development, promotion of these games, and their distribution (Zackariasson and
Wilson, 2006a). Subsequently, it has been re-published twice as a book chapter
(Zackariasson and Wilson, 2009, 2006b). This attention has been just a little
embarrassing because we know in fact that marketing of games go beyond those items
covered in that interview. We appreciate for instance that the nature of the offering is
quite important in its acceptance by gamers. Further, it is known that a fair amount of
internal marketing is involved in selling or pitching the concepts of specific
development projects. These items should be included in the broader concept of video
game development. The purpose of this paper is thus to incorporate these items into the
concept of video game marketing.
OBSERVATIONS
The Usual Interaction between Marketer and User
The present role of product management in marketing video games - The video game
industry is not old, thus marketing in this industry is pretty young. So much money is
required for development and commercialization, however, that marketing is needed
and has evolved to the state among larger publishers where product managers are used.
Consequently, results of a knowledgeable person interview have been used to indicate
the role management plays in guiding product development and market management in
the video game industry (Zackariasson and Wilson, 2006a).
In a classical sense, the product manager is responsible of seeing that a product is
appropriate for the intended market and implementing a program that is suitable for its
marketing. Also in a classical sense, he is an influence in that process. That is, the
individual had the classic responsibility of project management without the authority to
get things done. Put another way, he/she works through people as opposed to having
people work for him/her. In the development process in particular that was studied
here, it was the project manager who had authority, but the product manager had
influence in bringing intermediate feedback from the marketplace
What we are saying to developers is that were not inventing this observation;
it is a fact. That is why developers today accept what should be changed, what
should be added.
On the other hand, he acknowledged that sometimes discussions were required

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Sometimes they (the developers) do not want to hear what marketing has to
say, then we have to be convincing. Maybe we are wrong also, so we need to
say the consumers were saying this. Is it really a good idea? Then there is a
discussion between marketing and the developers.
And of course there are times when a product manager has difficulty in exercising any
influence
Additionally, marketing does not have as much influence over the developer
that has had a few good games as they might have over a developer that is
making his first game for us.
There were implications, however, that the responsibilities went beyond classical
product management carryover from other industries did not appear strong. He talked
about individuals coming in from food, where a lot of product management practices
have been developed. Instead, he saw a need to be a gamer in order to do an adequate
job. That is a comment that we heard in development also. The firm that was featured
in an earlier development paper (Zackariasson et al., 2006a) preferentially hired gamers.
Evidently, at this point in time, an appreciation for games and gaming is still a major
factor in success. One important factor for marketers in this area is the importance of
working with the development group in this the product management function. If they
are all gamers, then being a gamer would seem to be a definite asset.
Game promotion - The respondent mentioned the importance of buzz in the marketing
of video games. This observation reinforces an observation by Kent (2001, 459-460) on
the importance of newsgroups and web communication in the marketing of Doom by id
Software in 1993-1994. Essentially, companies face a trilogy of difficulties in
marketing these products. First, as the case with many consumer non-durables,
companies lack direct contact with their customers and must rely on some sort of mass
communication to reach them. Secondly, the games tend to be one time purchases and
have relatively short life cycle. Thus, demand must be built before the product is
introduced. Third, they are virtual products; there is little tangibility to them. Under
these circumstances, the product manager utilized early tests by journalists hoping
possibility of leaks as recorded in the Doom case, but surely appreciating a two-level
communication effect primary to the journalists and secondarily to gamers.
The media was seen as a big part of a marketing plan. Depending on the type of game
and asset availability, the company went to the press one year before release dates,
sometimes two years before. That approach was seen as the only way one could create
buzz. It also went online to give viewers assets with which to create buzz in their
communities. Communities, the fans, were seen as really important in marketing. With
(his) most recent success, he had exclusive responsibility of testing fans perceptions
and opinions. That led to a lot of conversation worldwide because they were truly fond
of the game. The company found that fans could be used both as a channel to get
messages out, but also as feedback on features. That helped create and keep up a buzz
around the game.

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Distribution - Additionally, the importance of a campaign to retailers was recognized,

which is a classic responsibility of a product manager. The respondent called them
partners. This recognition established the present dominant role of the retailer in game
sales. Essentially, he suggested that retail partners needed to know the companys
objectives in advance, so that a foundation for gaining shelf space was established.
We are trying now to involve them more, for one thing, by informing them of
where we are going with each product. There are so many products on the
market today that they have to make their choices. If we dont convince them
that we are aiming for an AAA title, for instance, then we are going to have
less of a chance of being on their shelves.
In the absence of shelf space, gamers could not purchase product under present
distribution practices. In the longer term, this situation could change for publishers. In
general, a lot of software is distributed over the web; this trend appears to be developing
in the more sophisticated games. In contrast to earlier offerings, the primary
distribution of MMOGs has become web oriented. Funcom, for example, says that at
this point it is 15% in boxes and 85% online, and rising (Private communication, 2005).
The Nature of the Offering
Background - For all its success, the industrys approach to marketing video games still
remains pretty basic. Put simply, these offerings have traditionally been conceptualized
as products to be offered to customers in basic, one-time sales. In a previous paper it
was argued that this might not be the best way to view these transactions at least when it
comes to a specific genre, Massive Multiplayer Online Games (Zackariasson and
Wilson, 2004); this argument paralleled observations made by both Mulligan and
Patrovsky (2003) and Bartle (2003) that the offerings were something more than
products products with significant augmented services on the one hand and an
environment on the other. Our suggestion was, with the recent development of games
being played over the Internet, these offerings would especially appear to be
conceptualized as pure services as defined by Shostacks (1977) classical model of
products and services. This argument has support. Not only have video games been
categorized as services, but in a metaphorical sense, they have been compared with, for
example, tourism (Book, 2003; Zackariasson and Wilson, 2005).
This approach leaves us with a rather blunt instrument to envision these transactions.
Consequently, we have further reflected upon their nature. Do we really live in an
either-or world of goods and services? Clearly Shostack (1977) did not think so; she, in
fact, developed the diagram that has become standard in marketing texts, which showed
offerings as a combination of physical goods and intangible services. Kotler (2000, 3-6)
also leaves room for reflection. In the opening chapter of the millennium issue of his
text, 10 entities are listed in which marketing people market goods, services,
experiences, events, persons, places, properties, organizations, information and ideas.
Games and Playing Games - As an extension of earlier work, we have looked at the
recent version of video games in general and MMOGs in particular, which feature
persistent virtual worlds. In general terms, games and playing games have been

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conceptualized in a few classical studies. According to Huizinga (1950/1938), playing is

a fundamental part of human existence; in his terminology, we are the homo ludens. But
playing is a process that serves no logic but its own. When playing acquires meaning it
stops being pure play, because there is always relevance in the greater scheme of things.
Nothing can be a play if it has moral consequences outside of what has been defined as
play-space, a.k.a. the magic circle. Caillois (2001/1958) argued that there is a
multiplicity of kinds of games and thus classified games in four different categories: 1)
agn (competition), 2) alea (chance), 3) mimicry (simulation), and 4) ilinx (vertigo).
These categories are all in the domain of play, but they serve different object to be
reached within each category. Caillois work is a continuation on what Huizinga argued
in the lectures that built the foundations for his Homo Ludens. It is also in discussion as
these, what a game is and what does it mean to play them that video games take on
some defining superstructure.
Various descriptions have been extended to conceptualize games. As a rather new
medium it can be understood in a number of different ways, but the pure experience of
interacting with a game is harder to theorize. Juul (2003) in a rather clinical approach
describes a classical game model as consisting of six features; these features are also
working on three different levels: the game itself as rules, the gamers relation to the
game, and the relation between the activity of gaming and the rest of the world. A
game is 1) a rule-based formal system with 2) variable and quantifiable outcome, where
3) different outcomes are assigned different values, 4) the player exerts effort in order to
influence the outcome, 5) the player feels attached to the outcome, and 6) the
consequences of the activity are optional and negotiable (pp 3-4). Games have been
discussed as narratives or simulations (cf. Wolf and Perron 2003). Frasca (2003) has
further indicated that we have more to learn about games and gaming through applying
concepts of simulations, but he also suggests that there is something very personal and
experience-based when interacting with video games, Whoever slowly walked back
home after buying a long-awaited video game knows exactly the kind of excitement that
I am talking about (p 234).
Finally, gamers themselves of course have expressed their experiences with gaming.
Nicholas Yee in the daedalus project1 gathered an extensive database on MMOG
gamers response in an online survey. One aspect of this survey was to collect gamers
motivations for playing MMOG. In an upcoming book section Yee (2006, 12-13) has
published some responses:
After many weeks of watching I found myself interested in the interactions
between people in the game, it was totally absorbing!!!! The fact that I was able
to immerse myself in the game and relate to other people or just listen in to the
chatter was appealing. [female, 34]
I play MMORPGs with my husband as a source of entertainment. Overall it can
be a cheaper form of entertainment where you can spend quite a bit of time with
a significant other. To play well you end up developing more ways of
communicating. [female, 31]
1

http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/ accessed 5 October 2005.

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I like the whole progression, advancement thing ... gradually getting better and
better as a player, being able to handle situations that previously I wouldnt
have been able to. [male, 48]
No one complains about jobs or other meaningless things. It's a great stress
reducer. I like that I can be someone else for a couple hours. [female, 28]
Currently, I am trying to establish a working corporation within the economic
boundaries of the virtual world. Primarily, to learn more about how real world
social theories play out in a virtual economy. [male, 30]
Reflections - In their most recent offerings, game developers have come as close as
currently possible to creating a dream world for us. Dream, however, may not have
the proper connotation. It is an environment in which participants speak of not only
immersing themselves, but learning, growing, and theorizing (Yee, 2006, 12-13). This
development is fascinating when one reflects not only on where we are, but where we
might go with the evolving technology.
It is a development that also challenges us to think about what is presented in terms of
marketing. If we now turn to the situation at hand and the meeting with video game
developers, it was argued that they were not developing and selling products, but rather
services (Zackariasson and Wilson, 2004). Essentially, the argument was along the
lines of either-or. These offerings clearly were not products (most everyone agreed to
that), so they had to be services. So the discussions went on to reflect on analogies with
tourism or entertainment the development and marketing opportunities that could be
envisioned by extension of those concepts to video games.
One has to wonder about this classification and therefore one returns to Kotler (2000, 36) and that opening chapter of his text 10 entities listed in which marketers ply their
skills goods, services, experiences, events, persons, places, properties, organizations,
information and ideas. We wonder now if that listing is not prescient. Do we really live
in that either-or world of goods and services? In his preface to Christian Grnroos
(1990, xiii) text on service management and marketing, Professor Kotler related his
conversion to the idea that services were indeed different and required their own marketing
paradigms New concepts are necessary if service marketing is to succeed. Merely
adopting product marketings labels does not resolve the question of whether product
marketing can be overlaid on service businesses (Shostack, 1977). In this article that
Kotler thought so important, Shostack asserted that service marketers were in urgent
need of concepts and priorities that were relevant to their actual experience and needs,
and that marketing had failed in evolving to meet that demand.
The field has gone from consideration of goods to be marketed, to goods and services.
Might we again be a situation where marketing had failed in evolving to meet
marketers demands? Is the need urgent enough to consider development of concepts
and priorities relevant to actual experiences and needs of people involved in the
marketing of a third class of offerings as it was when Shostack published her 1977
paper? We wonder therefore if there are not other individuals who have similar

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demands in marketing their offerings. It certainly would suit our needs much better to
discuss the marketing of video games as experiences. That is, might it be time to
consider the marketing of goods, services and experiences with separate paradigms?
One might reasonably ask a question in response to the goods, services and experiences
question, must we have a separate paradigm for each of Kotlers ten offerings to include
also events, persons, places, properties, organizations, information and ideas? The
response to that question may lay with Shostacks observations that
services were an important portion of the economy, and
services were sufficiently different from products to deserve their own
marketing approach.
One is left with necessary and sufficiency conditions. Each of the offerings
undoubtedly has their conditions of sufficiency they are different or they would not be
on the list, but they do not rise to the level of economic necessity yet. Experiences, on
the other hand, do. If one were to examine the service classification of Fisk and
Tansuhaj (1985) based on organizations, an argument could be made that one quarter to
one half of them are totally experience based, or dominantly so.
And so how might these offerings be marketed? In the Shostack treatment of services,
their tangible clues were the subject of focus food and drink differentiation, for
instance, were stressed for airlines. Clearly, this approach will not work with
experiences; experiences have virtually no tangibility associated with them, which
returns us to the problem presently faced by MMOG marketers. At one time, video
games had album covers to assist in game marketing, a tangible clue better
packaging is regarded as one asset that led to establishing Electronic Arts leadership in
the industry (Kent, 2001, 263). In contrast to earlier offerings, however, the primary
distribution of MMOGs has become web oriented. Funcom, for example, says that at
this point it distributes 15% of its offering in boxes and 85% online, and online sales are
rising (Private communication, 2005).
So one might go on, how can games in particular and experiences in general be
marketed? It seems as if experiences tend to be related to other experiences either
actual, or imagined. Game producers have found two approaches that seem to be useful
in marketing virtual products such as MMOGs. The first is they create buzz by
sending out early versions of their offerings alpha and beta tests are fairly standard in
the industry. Observations and discussions of these games in these forms tend to take
place, largely in chat rooms on the web. Secondly, they permit trial in some cases. If
the potential customer likes the trial, then he or she can purchase the rest of the game
either from a distributor or, more recently, on-line. We are not sure about the general
case. Buzz would always seem to be a useful first approach in marketing. Trial, on the
other hand, is not always an easy thing to provide. Perhaps marketers will need to find
a way to provide trial as game marketers now do on the web. Whatever the case, an
effective approach could provide the next Shostack type breakthrough in marketing
and we would suspect that it would affect more than video games. Further, we think it
likely that a product-service-experience mixture would be found for most offerings,
particularly those ones at the upper level of Maslow (1943).

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Those thoughts, however, must be developed. Before ending here, we would like to
comment on two observations concerning the present status of video games. First, is
their possible future. Frequently, science fiction precedes reality. If that is the case,
there are already examples of literature that has dwelt on the possibility of graphically
persistent worlds accessible through the worldwide web. Gibson (1984), in
Neuromancer, might have been the first to suggest such a possibility and then at a
time when the existing web was in its infancy. One of the more striking and mindboggling descriptions of such a world, however, is Neil Stephensons (1992) Metaverse
in his novel Snow Crash in which a digital world co-exists with the physical world. The
idea here is this kind of literature many times provides the bases of what creative
individuals see themselves developing (Kushner, 2003). They apparently exist now.
This quite homogenous group of (almost exclusively) young men do not see themselves
producing products or services, but places to go, things to do, and then return home.
The second observation that might be made deals with the downside of video games.
On the one hand, correlation studies have suggested that playful individuals tend to be
creative (Dansky, 1994). If that is the case, we may be looking at a generation of
heretofore unseen creativity because of the focus a generation has had on game playing.
On the other hand, the violent nature of some games has been recognized and criticized
at the national level in US congressional hearings (cf. Kent, 2001, 261-180). Further,
some worlds apparently offer significantly differences from every days boredom,
which provides escapism to the degree of developing gaming addiction. The forum
EverQuest widows was started specifically for the purpose of supporting friends and
families of those people who were gaming excessively, with adverse consequences to
family, work, finances and social life. 2
Project Marketing of Game Developers
Background - This topic was covered in a paper written to provide an example of the
internal marketing of projects (Zackariasson et al., 2006c). An occasion was captured in
which an international publisher of video games had purchased two producers. This
situation permitted the publisher to make as well as buy games. Although a
publishing firm may have some idea for a game based on a license it holds, ideas tend to
come from development groups through pitches. Idea pitching goes on throughout
the year for publishers, so order formality is conditional and pitching is the norm.
Nevertheless, there is some formality in specifying output even with inside producers.
With the particular development firm interviewed, there was a contract of sorts that
exists with the parent that specifies deliverables. Projects of this type, however, tend to
be judged on the basis of output both in terms of gamer enjoyment and revenue. Thus,
deliverables such as demo tapes at a certain time can be met, but the quality of the game
may suffer. Consequently, concern of both the parent and developer firm is getting
quality under the agreed upon conditions. There thus is some flexibility in this regard,
but it does not work to the advantage to either party both would prefer to have quality
games produced within the framework of agreed upon conditions.
2

The forum EverQuest widows was started specifically for the purpose of supporting friends and families
to those people that were gaming too much, with consequences on family, work, economy and social life.

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The process We were told that publishers do not make decisions to commit large
amounts of money on few pieces of paper. They would most times want to see a ready,
playable product, i.e. a demo, but in this situation, most times the process starts with a
project idea presented in a power point presentation (around 30 slides), graphics and
mock-up screenshots. After a presentation, a decision is made on whether to create a
prototype of the idea. After making the prototype (1-6 month), a long-term decision is
made on whether to green light the project. In the firm in question, a dedicated
committee evaluated all proposals and makes these decisions. Further, the publisher
made an assessment of ROI for all projects, not the developer. The developer focused
on what they were good at, game development, the marketing potentials were judged by
the publisher.
In many respects, the internal producers were governed by the same protocol as external
producers. Of this observation one can be relatively sure because the individual
interviewed in this case represented his firm when it previously was an external
producer so same producer, same publisher, two different corporate affiliations. In
each instance, producers were required to pitch their ideas, which were evaluated by the
publishers special committee. Put simply, there was no difference in this aspect of
project marketing between internal and external producers internal producers do not
get free grants for game development, they must earn them through a common proposal
system. Nor was there any indication given that differences existed when the publishing
parent had ideas of their own that they thought might be pursued. External, as well as
internal, candidates were given an opportunity to suggest some use of licensed,
proprietary materials.
Of course there were differences between internal and external producers as they made
proposals. At the onset, one might think that internal sources had an advantage because
their offerings were modified rebuys for the parent (cf. Robinson et al., 1967). That
advantage might be less than one might expect. Kent (2001), in his review of the
history of video games, indicates that long-term relationships are rather the norm
between producers and publishers and thus modified rebuys are rather common. Unless
a producer screws up, its offerings tend to be welcomed by publishers this industry
has grown from zero to ~$30 billion (surpassing Hollywood box office) since 1975 and
so availability of new material has been a sought after commodity. Instead, any
advantage the internal produce has is subtler and the difference is seen primarily in the
area of relationships. Internal participants have the edge of sustaining relationships
rather continuously. One might recall that Cova and Salle (2000, 671) adapted the
conceptualization of sleeping relationships to describe time period between projects
for the same buyer, which of course works to some disadvantage to external firms.
DISCUSSION
The purpose of this paper was to incorporate some items into the concept of video game
marketing that characterize business as usual, in the video game industry and reflect
the nature of activities in the sector. Although specialized in its application, it is within
the framework of understanding normal business in the field of this specialized

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consumer oriented marketing and thus very much within the framework of materials to
be considered in this NFF 2009 conference. To some extent, we are extending previous
notions of game development and promotion and might put these notions in some
perspective.
One of the fundamental ideas of good marketing, indeed good business, is the
understanding of the value or benefit a consumer is obtaining from a product or service.
With regard to video games, a product-service dichotomy appears inadequate to
describe these offerings, as well as other offerings of similar characteristics. A
preliminary argument has thus been made that these offerings are experiences, and this
argument is examined from a Shostack (1977) perspective. If that argument is
generalized, then a breakthrough may be a consequence. We think it likely that a
product-service-experience mixture would be found for most offerings, particularly
those ones at the upper level of Maslow (1943).
The observations made on project marketing were also intriguing. Previously, we had
studied project management in video game development (cf. Walfitz et al., 2006), and
that was rather special. In general, project marketing considerations have not received
attention until much more recently. Pinto and Covin (1992) in an early, conceptual
article left no doubt as to where they saw the responsibility for marketing projects.
They asserted that it is a responsibility that project managers must assume if projects are
to be successful. Consequently, they offered a framework to help project managers
develop and focus their efforts toward selling their projects. The framework consisted
of three components client analysis, marketing strategy, and evaluation-control of this
plan. They suggested that a key requirement for an adequate client analysis is open and
ongoing interaction with the client. With regard to marketing tactics, they asserted that
the key to successful marketing is having the right product at the right price at the right
place (time) with the right promotion and the rightness is determined by the
customer.
More recently, Cova and Salle in a series of articles have suggested that project
organizations need to go beyond customers needs to understand customers business
(cf. Cova and Salle, 2005; Cova and Salle, 2000; Cova et al., 2000). Consequently,
marketing is considered to be part of the essential functions of project organizations and
summarily, project management (Cova and Salle, 2005). In particular, project
marketing is advanced as a long-term, business (not project) orientation. It is seen
through the eye of the marketer (not project manager), portfolio (not single project)
biased and helps foster comparative, if not competitive, advantage. It has a customer
focus that requires management both prior to, and after, goal-oriented project work.
The concept has a network appreciation and emphasizes the importance of relationships
in the marketing approach.
Finally, it is prudent to reflect on the nature of the information presented in this paper.
The studies in general represent single interviews in many cases from a single
individuals in single firms. It thus is truly exploratory. As Cox (1979, 22) asserted,
however, information from single individuals can be quite useful. Nevertheless, we
appreciate and distinguish market research from marketing research. The first implies
understanding of a situation well enough to implement action, the second implies

10

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understanding. We have no doubt that respondents were quite capable of describing

their situations and on the basis of past performance were doing a good job. To
paraphrase Spender (1987, 76) managers can be relied upon for their observations
because they tend to be good communicators, and product managers in particular must
be excellent communicators they have very little else with which to work. The
respondents might also be relied upon with respect to industry observations because it is
to his advantage to understand the competitive nature of the industry. To generalize
from any case study is a stretch, and so we would not go that far. The work is
exploratory and interesting; it is not descriptive, although it may provide the framework
for description as cases can do (cf. Bonoma, 1985; Green et al., 1988).
CONCLUSIONS
The academic study of video games has developed some popularity. In this paper, an
attempt to add to the successful game development, promotion of these games, and their
distribution that struck some as interesting has been pursued. In particular, we feel that
some interesting observations have been made on firms who pitch their ideas to
publishers who have make or buy opportunities. It is suggested that internal and
external sources tend to be handled similarly, although internal groups have the
opportunity to develop relationships that external source do not. In general, it is felt that
a product-service typology is too restrictive to describe the need fulfillment of games
and gaming. Considerations along the lines of experiences and experience marketing
could prove to be a profitable way to go.

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