Technological convergence is the trend of technologies to join into new technologies that bring together a number of different types of media. The three main consoles being PS3, Xbox360 and Wii are an example of the significance of technological convergence. As for example, the PS3 can store not only digital information like photos, music, videos but also Blu-Ray player allowing high definition films to be played. The Xbox has a live store where games, videos and music can be downloaded, also web browser and face book is connected. These are examples of the convergence how everything is linked together. What’s more, all these machines are now ‘home entertainment centres’ and can play all types of media. This opens up the market, consumers who want Blu-ray player might buy the PS3 as it’s the full package, and also these games are mainly positioned in the lounge making the consoles a family possession and encourage family to invest in family games. Technological convergence opens up a huge new market for games companies as there are limited amount of people who just use there phone for example and don’t mind paying a 99p for a fun App. It also allows self sufficient developers to make money from making the games without the publisher funding.
Media convergence is when old media and new media combined to make media producers media consumers interact and change. An example of this is Rockstar, they use licensed music (such as Kanye West) enabling games to be more realistic and creating the atmosphere almost like to be a movie. Rockstar used media convergence for marketing, they coordinated their online trailers with the release of magazine articles and TV adverts. Another example for this would be viral marketing, this type of marketing uses convergence so you had information on old media (posters) being spread by new media (blogs and social networking). A good example of the power of cross media convergence is games like Farmville; they can only exist due to media convergence… Distributed by Facebook, Marketed by facebook and consumed on facebook, this proves that media convergence can change the industry.
Synergy is the interaction of two or more agents (media businesses or products) to certify a larger effect if acted independently. New technologies support this process like the internet, DVD, downloading etc. It is a primarily marketing strategy created to maximise the amount of coverage and impact of any publicity the brand/product/ game will get at a specific time, can also be linked to distribution and production. An example of synergy would be 'cross promotion' when electronic arts were promoting their world cup game in 2010 they had a cross promotion with coke. special cans of coke had printed words on them and that when playing FIFA the printed words given could unlock new game content. This is synergy because as coke gets talked about as the football fans drink it they spread the word about the world cup game... So it benefits coke and the E.A.
Proliferation is the rapid increase in the number of a certain type of product. You get proliferation in media and businesses. An example of proliferation is the iPhone, this is a big company and almost everyone is familiar with it so companies learn that consumers want a touch screen phone that has lots of apps. So then there become lots of smart phones with very similar looks and attributes this is an example of proliferation. The positives for the developers is that they can create content for numerous different machines and not controlled by the console manufacturers, however a negative would be that the pressure to sell means it could result in less risk and innovation. A positive for consumers is that there is a wide range of choice, and because of the big competition out there the prices are lowered. Although a negative would be the confusion, the choice is so big it’s hard to decide what to choose.
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