The Impact Of User Generated Content And Reviews On Open World Game Sales

With the rapid development of the global game industry,more and more people have entered the ranks of game players.Researches on game player groups and game sales have become an issue of increasing concern in the industry and academia.However,in the relevant researches at home and abroad,it is less to explore the relationship between game players and game sales from a management perspective.Therefore,this paper attempts to explore the relationship between game players’behavior information in online community and game sales based on signaling theory and provide a new perspective for game sales related research.The core research question presented in this paper is to explore how the user generated content and user comments of other game players as a quality signal of the game affect potential players to buy or experience the game,thereby affecting game sales.Considering the moderating effect of product characteristics such as game price and average game duration,and brand degree of game enterprises on the above signal transmission process.We selected the Open World game released on the Steam game platform in 2015-2018 as our research sample.And the sample data was from the well-known Steam data monitoring site SteamSpy.After data screening and pre-processing,a total of 368 game samples and 4055 valid observation data records were obtained.The research shows that:(1)The scale of user generated content is positively related to the growth of game users;(2)The number of players’ positive review is positively related to the growth of game users;(3)The number of players’ positive review has a greater impact on the growth of game users than the game video number.(4)The game price negatively moderates the the relationship between the number of players’ negative comments,positive comments and the growth of game users;(5)The average game duration negatively moderates the relationship between the number of players’ positive reviews and the growth of game users;(6)The brand degree of game publisher has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between the number of players’ negative reviews and the growth of game users.Combining with the research conclusion and the characteristics of game industry,this paper also puts forward some practical advice:(1)With the aid of technological progress,game practitioners should continuously develop products with innovative significance and new game experience,actively create and maintain online game communities in order to attract more potential players with innovative products and benign online community.(2)Game developnent in the future should conform to the social trend:more lightweight.Game designers should strive to reduce the potential burden on players.At the same time,game enterprises should further enhance their own strength and make use of brand advantages to gain more loyal players.