製品差別化から生じる同質化

ゲームソフト・ビジネスの事例

抄録

In the Japanese game software market, 472 companies have launched 7,162 products from 1983 to 1999.In this process, multiple genres (product categories) are formed. The companies which have entered this market from 1983 to 1986 has launched some high novel products and established a new genre (sub-market). In midst of severe competition, how companies have carried out the product development? In order to attract users and to survive in the competition of sub-market, companies aimed to differentiate their products from the others. Companies unleashed their developers' talents to meet user needs. However, facing ambiguous user needs, it was also necessary to learn from the products which other companies developed. Combining their own originality and features learned from the other companies’ product, some companies created the excellent products. Companies learned each other through the products. As a result, companies had a certain degree of homogeneity in both the aspect of corporate behavior and the aspect of the product line-up. In consequence of such learning of companies, certain style of game appeared in Japan.