On Serious Games Sharing Serious Games quality projects
One of the Serious Games categories that is usually forgotten is “Persuasion”. Games for Persuasion are the most profitable games in all of the Serious Games market and they are not even conceived (neither perceived) as Serious Games. We already talked a little bit about Serious Games Categories, but let’s dedicate today to analize Persuasion Games in depth and FIFA in particular.
You are the marketing manager of FIFA (The International Federation of Association Football) and you need to make more money. Broadcasting rights have been negotiated, players have been sold and bought, and now what? Should you wait for the beginning of the season? NO! You create the most powerful tool to generate viewers, merchandising buyers and evangelists: the coolest video game, a simulation of real football.
You have studied your market and you know that male pre-adolescents, adolescents and adult-adolescents are your target. And what do they love to do in their free time? PLAY! Because you are a really intelligent marketing manager, you create a video game that also brings money to the company, around 60€ per unit, 90€ for deluxe editions. Not bad, ha?
Persuasive Games work like this: when playing, our brain deactivates its defense mechanisms. We just want to enjoy the game! If during this low defense period we receive stimulus to buy/like things, they will penetrate in our heads without any filter. It is an inception kind of thing! And then, voilá! “Hey! Maybe I’d like to buy that cool team T-shirt” or “Let’s go buy tickets for the next game”.
Games like FIFA not only bring direct revenue to the company, they also generate millions in merchandising items and tv spectators (that’s advertising money!). And every year you can re-launch the game with new players, new T-shirts, new persuasive cool messages… and just a few feature adjustments. This is business.
What is our conclusion here? You shouldn’t misjudge the possibilities of a video game to improve your company’s revenue. You could add a whole, cool, profitable new business line to your product.
