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http://dx.doi.org/10.5392/JKCA.2021.21.06.561

Different Effects of Price Discounts on Game Purchase: Comparison between Single and Multi-Games  

Choi, Kang-Jun (연세대학교 경영연구소)
Hwang, Ji-Hyeon (연세대학교 경영학과)
Lee, Jae-Young (연세대학교 경영학과)
Publication Information
The Journal of the Korea Contents Association / v.21, no.6, 2021 , pp. 561-571 More about this Journal
Abstract
As the game industry grows, the companies are promoting price discounts to increase game sales and profits. Consumers generally feel guilt when they are purchasing games. Previous studies argue that consumers feel less guilty and justify their consumption more easily when they are purchasing hedonic products at discounted price. In this study, we argue that there are different types of games; multi-game where consumers socialize each other and single games not supporting socializing. In the multi-game, consumers make social relationship which can provide substantial benefits. Since multi-games are promoting consumers' socializing expected to have those benefits. Although most of game consumptions bring a sense of guilty feeling, purchasing multi-game may not cause guilt much because the benefits of socializing justify the consumption. To support my hypothesis, we collect the data from global game platform Steam to analyze the relationship between price promotion and number of consumers. As a result, price promotion has significantly different relationship between multi-and single game. The results of this study suggest several managerial implications.
Keywords
Multi-game; Single Game; Price Promotion; Social Relationship; Hedonic Consumption; Justification;
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