Essay

                                                                    
                                                             Targeting local Audiences



It is important to target national and local audiences because the makers of the game want to maximise sales, they also need to be sensitive to different cultures in different countries. Also they need to make the game in different langues for different companies to maximise sales. Examples of the things that games need to be sensitive to in different countries are the german swastika can not be used in germany if they want to sell games. Another example would be game makers could not create a game about a plane crashing into a building in america because people from america wont buy it, it is the same with any chemical warfare in japan this could not be made into a game that you would want to sell in japan.

Local audiences change the products introduced into the market like china do not allow games consoles because they think that game console corrupt the youth. Nintendo have made the game cube to sell to china, the gamecube was not selling well in america and was reduced to $50. Nintendo have created a special version of the game cube for china to protect it from being copied and made and sold cheaper. Nintendo are planning to create super mario bros in chinese language and the chinese online game market is estimated to be worth £250 million this year. An example of a game that has been changed for local audiences is the Gran Tourismo 4 remix of "Getting Away with Murder" by Papa Roach had the word "murder" removed and the title changed to simply "Getting Away". Another example would be Mario party 8, it was released in the UK with the word spastic in it which is another word for someone who has epilepcy. Every copy of the game was recalled and the game was then re-released with the word changed to Erratic.

Localisation is where national games or consoles are changed to suit different cultures or countries, there are different part of them that is changed like on call of Duty black ops and Black ops 2 Nazi zombies is taken off the whole game because it has the swastika and the zombies are all Nazis. This is done so that they can maximise sales in Germany without offending anybody from that country. They try not to offend cultures and countries because they will get bad reviews and lose money when people dont buy there game.

Game marketing changes to suit different local audiences by marketing in different places and different ways. Game marketing can be done online, on television and in game shop windows so that people will see it when  they walk past. If it is done online it will get to a wider audience than it would just in a shop window, or the television. If it is marketed on the television it will not get seen as much as on the internet but will still get seen alot. An example of this would be Grand Theft Auto 5 that is coming out in spring 2013, Rockstar advertise on the internet by releasing the trailer onto youtube, they also advertise on the television by putting the trailer on an advert and they advertise in shop windows like in blockbusters there is a Grand Theft Auto poster up in the window so that everybody that walks past will see it. Rockstar have advertised on all of these because they want the best advertisement for there game and they want everybody to know everything about it when it comes out so that they make the best profit within the first week of release.

Distributors

Distributors

The distributor for Grand theft Auto is Take two interactive, Take two interactive is an american publisher developer and distributors that make computer games. Take two interactive own rockstar games who made Grand theft auto series.

Skylanders Giants was distributed by x bec entertainment.

Angry birds was distributed by EA Chilingo, this is a game that is made for apple  iphone ipod and ipad, also made for android and can be played on televisions.