IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/atlecj/v38y2010i1p81-94.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Console Price and Software Availability in the Home Video Game Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Richard Gretz

Abstract

Using hedonic results from a unique data set covering the U.S. home video game industry (1976–2003) the interaction between software provision and console price is analyzed. Increased software provision negatively effects console price. This is contrary to many empirical pricing studies in the network effects literature greater software provision makes hardware more valuable and this should be reflected by increased hardware price. However, the main result from the paper is consistent with the recent theoretical literature on two-sided markets. Also, findings suggest the two-sided pricing strategy employed by hardware firms is dynamic. The percent of price decrease accredited to game provision decreases over time. Copyright International Atlantic Economic Society 2010

Suggested Citation

  • Richard Gretz, 2010. "Console Price and Software Availability in the Home Video Game Industry," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 38(1), pages 81-94, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:atlecj:v:38:y:2010:i:1:p:81-94
    DOI: 10.1007/s11293-009-9209-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11293-009-9209-3
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11293-009-9209-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jean‐Charles Rochet & Jean Tirole, 2006. "Two‐sided markets: a progress report," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(3), pages 645-667, September.
    2. Sangin Park, 2004. "Quantitative Analysis of Network Externalities in Competing Technologies: The VCR Case," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(4), pages 937-945, November.
    3. Nicholas Economides & Evangelos Katsamakas, 2006. "Two-Sided Competition of Proprietary vs. Open Source Technology Platforms and the Implications for the Software Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(7), pages 1057-1071, July.
    4. Demetrius Yannelis, 2002. "On access pricing with network externalities," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 30(2), pages 186-190, June.
    5. Filson, Darren & Gretz, Richard T., 2004. "Strategic innovation and technology adoption in an evolving industry," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 89-121, January.
    6. Neil Gandal, 1994. "Hedonic Price Indexes for Spreadsheets and an Empirical Test for Network Externalities," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 25(1), pages 160-170, Spring.
    7. Church, Jeffrey & Gandal, Neil, 1993. "Complementary network externalities and technological adoption," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 11(2), pages 239-260, June.
    8. White, Halbert, 1980. "A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 48(4), pages 817-838, May.
    9. Berry, Steven & Levinsohn, James & Pakes, Ariel, 1995. "Automobile Prices in Market Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 63(4), pages 841-890, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gretz, Richard T. & Basuroy, Suman, 2013. "Why Quality May Not Always Win: The Impact of Product Generation Life Cycles on Quality and Network Effects in High-tech Markets," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 89(3), pages 281-300.
    2. Marchand, André & Hennig-Thurau, Thorsten, 2013. "Value Creation in the Video Game Industry: Industry Economics, Consumer Benefits, and Research Opportunities," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 141-157.
    3. Gretz, Richard T., 2010. "Hardware quality vs. network size in the home video game industry," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 168-183, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniel Birke, 2009. "The Economics Of Networks: A Survey Of The Empirical Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(4), pages 762-793, September.
    2. Belleflamme,Paul & Peitz,Martin, 2015. "Industrial Organization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107687899, January.
    3. Carrillo, Juan D. & Tan, Guofu, 2021. "Platform competition with complementary products," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    4. Oz Shy, 2011. "A Short Survey of Network Economics," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 38(2), pages 119-149, March.
    5. Kim, Jin-Hyuk & Prince, Jeffrey & Qiu, Calvin, 2014. "Indirect network effects and the quality dimension: A look at the gaming industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 99-108.
    6. Bruno Jullien & Alessandro Pavan & Marc Rysman, 2021. "Two-sided markets, pricing, and network effects," Post-Print hal-03828345, HAL.
    7. Stremersch, S. & Tellis, G.J. & Franses, Ph.H.B.F. & Binken, J.L.G., 2007. "Indirect Network Effects in New Product Growth," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2007-019-MKT, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    8. Fluvià, Modest & Rigall-I-Torrent, Ricard & Espinet, Josep Maria & Garriga, Anna & Saló, Albert, 2011. "Precios implícitos de los atributos de los productos turísticos: ¿Qué esconde el efecto de la localización?/Implicit Prices of the Attributes of Tourism Products: What is Hidden Behind Location?," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 29, pages 781-802, Diciembre.
    9. Garcia-Swartz, Daniel D. & Garcia-Vicente, Florencia, 2015. "Network effects on the iPhone platform: An empirical examination," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 877-895.
    10. Jean-Pierre H. Dubé & Günter J. Hitsch & Pradeep K. Chintagunta, 2010. "Tipping and Concentration in Markets with Indirect Network Effects," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(2), pages 216-249, 03-04.
    11. Gretz, Richard T., 2010. "Hardware quality vs. network size in the home video game industry," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 168-183, November.
    12. Narayanan, V.K. & Chen, Tianxu, 2012. "Research on technology standards: Accomplishment and challenges," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(8), pages 1375-1406.
    13. Feng, Yao, 2011. "Local spillovers and learning from neighbors: Evidence from durable adoptions in rural China," MPRA Paper 33924, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Dietrich, Antje-Mareike, 2016. "Governmental platform intermediation to promote alternative fuel vehicles," Economics Department Working Paper Series 16, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Economics Department.
    15. Richard G. Newell & Adam B. Jaffe & Robert N. Stavins, 1999. "The Induced Innovation Hypothesis and Energy-Saving Technological Change," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 114(3), pages 941-975.
    16. Christos Genakos & Tommaso Valletti, 2011. "Testing The “Waterbed” Effect In Mobile Telephony," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(6), pages 1114-1142, December.
    17. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2010. "The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design Is Taking the Con out of Econometrics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(2), pages 3-30, Spring.
    18. Mitsuru Sunada, 2008. "Network effects with quality change: an empirical analysis of the Japanese mobile telecommunications market, 1995-2001," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(8), pages 657-674.
    19. Burcu Tan & Edward G. Anderson, Jr. & Geoffrey G. Parker, 2020. "Platform Pricing and Investment to Drive Third-Party Value Creation in Two-Sided Networks," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(1), pages 217-239, March.
    20. Vitor Trindade & Johannes Moenius, 2007. "Networks, Standards and Intellectual Property Rights," Working Papers 0705, Department of Economics, University of Missouri.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Hedonic prices; Indirect network effects; Two-sided markets; Video games; L16; L14; C23; L82;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L16 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Industrial Organization and Macroeconomics; Macroeconomic Industrial Structure
    • L14 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation
    • C23 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Models with Panel Data; Spatio-temporal Models
    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:atlecj:v:38:y:2010:i:1:p:81-94. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.