Data suggests that ‘Welcome Back’ program for PSN was a success for Sony. However, EEDAR’s Jesse Divnich believes that it may have uncovered a new marketing system releasing for free for a limited time a prior incarnation of a franchise before the new game’s release.
“While the Welcome Back program was designed to rekindle the activity and consumer trust of PlayStation Network users, the data suggests it may have highlighted a new profitable sequence for video games,” said Divnich. “ESRB president Patricia Vance once discussed the lack of ‘release sequences’ in the video game industry compared to other forms of entertainment. For instance, a movie is first released in theaters where it generates the most revenue, then moves to the Pay-Per-View market, followed by the rental market and lastly, broadcast for free on network television. Within the video game industry, however, these sequences typically occur simultaneously with games being available physically, digitally and for rental concurrently and rarely made available for free.”
“The data [from the Welcome Back program] would indicate that the free sequence may be incredibly beneficial to the video game industry. For instance, LittleBigPlanet 2 experienced a 66 percent gain in IGN Page Views and a 23 percent increase in Unique Interest (an IGN viewer indicating interest or purchase in a title) in June compared to the month of May. A strong possible explanation for this would be that after consumers played LittleBigPlanet for free through the PlayStation Network, many actively looked for the sequel and in some cases purchased the game, he continued, “Using a separate metric, GameTrailers.com Media Views, LittleBigPlanet 2 trailer views increased 69 percent over the comparable time period, independently reinforcing IGN’s results.
