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The decline of the GSP industry


Monk

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Satisfaction with your current provider has little to do with it. It is a social status phenomena. As we make more money we purchase higher priced items.

 

A Timex watch will serve you well and keep accurate time. I have several of them; however, I wear my Submariner, a Rolex, more often than all other watches I own. It is a status symbol. This social status phenomena carries over into everything we do. It influences the cars we drive, the cloths we wear, the food we eat, and even the game servers we rent.

 

As the economy recovers and consumers have more disposable income a great number will migrate back to the higher priced GSPs, not because they are displeased with the quality or service of their existing GSP, it is all about status.

 

Unfortunately we as a society in general equate price with value, the higher the price the greater the value. For tangible products this generally holds true but for a service related industry such as ours it can be just the opposite.

 

The economy is still on the decline and for the smaller cheaper GSPs that is good news. Smaller GSPs will see growth over the next few years as more and more consumers look for ways to save money. The mistake that some will make is the misinterpretation of a shift in the market place with market growth. What we are seeing now is a shift, not growth. As I stated in an earlier post this shift will cause the smaller GSPs to see an increase in their net operating income. To gain an insight on the health of the industry you need to analyze the industry as a whole.

 

doesnt exactly apply in GS market as many customers are young thus have no job so crisis or not they will still be looking for decent quality at lowest price possible.

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That's not accurate to measure the market in any sense...

 

You have to look at where the traffic is coming from (geography) for that search term and what results that search returns on Google. The trends tool also gives a good idea of what the keyword is usually returning results for via the articles to the right of the graph.

 

1. Most searches for that word are coming from Romania and Yugoslavia

2. GSP returns no results that would convert a game server sale as no game server providers rank for that keyword

3. GSP is the shortform for one of the biggest names in UFC right now: Georges St-Pierre

 

UFC is gaining popularity worldwide right now that is why you are seeing an increase in volume search traffic.

 

 

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doesnt exactly apply in GS market as many customers are young thus have no job so crisis or not they will still be looking for decent quality at lowest price possible.

 

The money has to come from somewhere these young customers without jobs depend on their parents income to support them. Younger generations are even more in tune with social trends and status.

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The money has to come from somewhere these young customers without jobs depend on their parents income to support them. Younger generations are even more in tune with social trends and status.

 

Almost every teen I knew (when I was in school last year) had a part time job. It is like that for any cities under 400 000 where it is safe to travel on your own. Any other kids make money on their farms. Most of the people in clans who were responsible for the bill if they weren't on a teampay system were people over 30.

 

Teampay or older folks with secure jobs seemed to be the majority of customers... again that depends on which game however because games like CSS where it is a lot of young people... have more young people renting obviously as opposed to games that attract an older crowd.

 

http://www.google.com/trends?q=%22gaming+server%22&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

This graph is not complete but it does illustrate the decline in the market.

 

A good comparison is to look at where console trends take off and where our trends (game servers) decline... note that is is in the year 2007 that the tables start to turn:

 

http://www.google.com/trends?q=ps3%2C+%22xbox+360%22%2C+%22call+of+duty%22&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

viz?q=ps3,+%22xbox+360%22,+%22call+of+duty%22&date=all&geo=all&graph=weekly_img&sort=0&sa=N

 

People are interested in online gaming. It first came out for PC and that is why it was such a good market to be in. When online gaming was introduced to the consoles and their graphics and performance caught up to PC, the market shifts to console. As well, consoles solve the cheating issue PC could not.

 

http://www.google.com/trends?q=%22game+servers%22&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

 

So we can ask ourselves... will PC gaming stick around or will P2P gaming take over with the console market dominating. The following illustrate the growing gamer market, but as you can also see - different platforms are doing better than others.

 

http://www.google.com/trends?q=%22games+for+ps3%22%2C+%22games+for+PC%22%2C+%22games+for+xbox%22&ctab=0&geo=us&geor=all&date=all&sort=0

viz?q=%22games+for+ps3%22,+%22games+for+PC%22,+%22games+for+xbox%22&date=all&geo=us&graph=weekly_img&sort=0&sa=N

 

http://www.google.com/trends?q=%22pc+games%22%2C+%22ps3+games%22%2C+%22xbox+games%22

viz?q=%22pc+games%22,+%22ps3+games%22,+%22xbox+games%22&graph=weekly_img&sa=N

 

I believe PS3 will continue to grow in market share because it is such a powerful system and Sony has always been an industry leader in quality products and thats not about to change.

http://gizmodo.com/5414938/department-of-defense-buys-2200-ps3s-to-upgrade-supercomputer

Talk about an influence to buy the ps3 ;)

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