GameCo Regional Marketing Strategy 🎮

Project Date: September 2024
Category: Business Intelligence

Project Overview

Objective: Identify the best regions for launching new games in 2017 using historical sales data.

Data: VGChartz dataset — global video game sales (1980-2016) for titles that sold over 10,000 units.

Methods:

  • Filtered and organized data using Excel (grouping, sorting, cleaning)
  • Conducted descriptive analysis to highlight trends
  • Created visualizations to communicate key insights

TL;DR

  • GameCo’s global sales have declined since 2008, despite regional market growth in the EU and Other regions.
  • Japan displays unique genre preferences that diverge from global trends.
  • Shooter games are rising globally, while Japan sees increasing popularity in Action-Adventure-RPG titles.
  • Cross-genre strategies show promise but require deeper behavioral data to validate.

Recommendation: Focus marketing efforts in the EU and Other regions, explore genre-targeted strategies in Japan, and pursue genre blending only with more robust consumer behavior data.

Key Insights

1. Regional Market Share Evolution (1980-2016)

EU and Other regions show consistent growth since 1980, while Japan and the US have mirrored volatility in market share.

⚠️ Critical Finding: Despite certain regional gains, GameCo’s gross sales have been declining since 2008.

Line Graph of Market Share by Region
FIG. A: Longitudinal view of market share by region. Note GameCo’s declining global sales post-2008.

2. Regional Genre Preferences (1980-2016)

All regions show similar trends, apart from Japan. Distinct genre preferences can inform targeted marketing strategies.

Regional Genre Preferences
FIG. B: Scatterplots compare each region’s average sales to global genre averages. NA, EU, and Other closely mirror global trends; Japan’s genre preferences diverge significantly.

Key Observation: Japan demonstrates unique genre preferences that diverge from global patterns.

Shooter Games: ⬆️ Rising globally on aggregate
Action-Adventure-RPG: ⬆️ Rising specifically in Japan, despite global decline

Bar Graphs of Regional Market Breakdown by Genre
FIG. C: Genre breakdown by region. Japan skews toward Action-Adventure-RPGs; global markets favor Shooters.

Bonus: Exploratory Analysis Attempt

Marketing Opportunity: Combining Genres

Challenge Explored: Customer crossover analysis with static sales data

Ethical Consideration: Hesitated to highlight Shooter genre growth due to concerns about promoting violent content.

Approach: Attempted to reallocate genre popularity using historical platform sales to suggest genre fusion strategies.

Hypothesis: Blending genres could drive sales through consumer crossover.

3D Bar Graph: Sales Forecast for Genre Crossover
FIG. D: Simulated impact of genre crossover (e.g., Action-Adventure-RPG) on sales, based on platform-level trends.

Limitations Identified:

  • Flawed assumption that sales trends would continue
  • Assumed genres/platforms were interchangeable
  • Needed transactional/basket data to support segmentation

Key Takeaway: Future analysis requires transaction-level data to explore basket diversity, segment customers more rigorously, and treat genre preference as a clustering or sequence modeling problem rather than relying on averages alone.

Recommendations

1. Increase Marketing Investment in Growth Regions

Focus marketing investment in the EU and ‘Other’ regions, given their consistent growth trajectory.

2. Investigate Japan-Specific Opportunities

The region’s unique genre preferences present a strategic opportunity requiring deeper investigation.

3. Tailor Game Marketing by Region

  • Global Strategy: Promote top shooters worldwide
  • Japan Focus: Emphasize action-adventure-RPGs and select shooters
  • Outside Japan: Leverage racing/simulation/sports growth trends

Tools Used: Excel, Data Visualization
Skills Demonstrated: Market Analysis, Trend Identification, Strategic Recommendations