Compare the similarities and differences of production, distribution, marketing and consumption of Red Dead Redemption and Café World - Amy Balchin

Compare the similarities and differences of production, distribution, marketing and consumption of Red Dead Redemption and Café World.

In this essay I will compare the similarities and differences in the production, distribution, marketing, and consumption of my two case studies, Red Dead Redemption and Café World.

Red Dead Redemption is created and produced by Rockstar, which is at the high end publishing division of Take Two interactive, which is a developer, publisher and distributor of video games.  Rockstar own the Red Dead brand, after purchasing the name and original game – Red Dead Revolver, from Capcom, and so they don’t have to pay any license fees to any other companies to use their IP.  The technology Rockstar used to create the game was their own game engine, RAGE, which is an example of media convergence. This would have saved them a lot of money, rather than paying other companies, but it would of cost Rockstar a lot in to create their own game engine in the first place. It was also good for Rockstar to have their own unique, game engine, as they wanted to create unique, realistic games. Rockstar did use Euphoria which is an animation engine, so they would have had to pay licences to use this software. Café World is created by Zynga, which is an independent social network games developer, which develops browser based games which converge with sites such as Facebook. As Zynga is a small company, bigger companies have invested in it, for example in 2010, Softbank and Google invested $300 million in Zynga, which is an example of media ownership. This would now mean that Google and Softbank have access of Café Worlds IP and can make money from the game.

During the distribution stage of Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar had to pay companies to use their systems to run the game, which is media ownership between Rockstar and the consoles producers. As Rockstar made the game for the PS3 and Xbox 360, it would have cost them roughly $3-$10 per game for Red Dead to run on their consoles. Rockstar waited for the PS3 and 360 to be released, as they are technologically converged games, meaning there are multiple products coming together to form one product with the advantages of all of them together. An advantage of Rockstar waiting for the consoles to be released was that consumers will be attracted by the consoles, as they do many things; online play, DVD, blue ray, can store digital information etc. Rockstar could also earn more money through producing games like Red Dead Redemption for technologically converged devices. On the other hand, Café World’s distribution was very different. Café World became available on Facebook on the 30^th September, 2010. A disadvantage of Café World only being available on Facebook is that users had to have a Facebook account; otherwise they cannot play the game. This could be bad for Zynga, as they could be losing consumers. A positive with Zynga producing its games for social networking sites is that it is a lot of viral marketing is happening, with people sharing the game with their friends, and the game being advertised on the site.

During the marketing stage of Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar used their own website to update the consumers about the various features of the game, which would keep the consumers excited and interested in the game. As they used their own website, the costs would have been very low, as they didn’t have to pay other sites to have coverage on their sites. An example of media convergence would be when Rockstar collaborated with a Hollywood movie director, John Hillcoat to create a Red Dead film. Viral marketing was also used with media convergence, old media marketing was spread by new media, blogs etc. Rockstar released a trailer, organized a 5 day exclusive with IGN.com and had a feature in Game informer magazine. These were all then released at the same time, which is an example of simultaneous release using synergy. Rockstar also used synergy when converging with Jose Gonzalez for the music of Red Dead Redemption. Rockstar also used synergy with their marketing with the retailers, HMV, Amazon, GAME etc. This benefited both Rockstar and the retailers, as the consumers who pre-ordered the game got extra bonuses, and so the retailers became popular. Zynga marketed Café World in terms of celebrating the one year anniversary. By giving the players a challenge with a new recipe, it promoted the game as it attracted more and more consumers to play Café World, which then lead to an increase in the game. The marketing for both games was very different, and Rockstar marketed Red Dead a lot more than Zynga did with Café World.

Consumption is the final part of the development of Red Dead Redemption. Thanks to technologically converged devices, Red Dead was available for consumers to play on the PS3 and Xbox 360. Now that the consumer has brought the game, it is up to them how they play it, but there is also a debate to whether the consumer can do as they please with the game, which has brought up issues of game hacking. Consumers of Café World can play the game online on social networking sites, which is an example of media convergence. Social networking sites are very popular nowadays, and as the game is a freemium game, it attracts even more consumers. Café World is limited on how you play, similar to Red Dead Redemption, as you have to have a flash enabled device to play, and so Apple customers cannot enjoy Café World on their devices.