This is just so simple and so obvious and yet everybody seems to forget it.

In computer games publishing there is a tendency to see other publishers as the competition. As the enemy even, especially if they have a similar game title.

And looking at the pronouncements of the platform holders there is little doubt that they view each other very much as competition.

Yet this is a very narrow view of the market and can cloud your decision making, reducing your marketing effectiveness and thus your profitability.

You see, you are not competing against something, you are competing for something.

And that something is sales.

And to get those sales people need to spend money, the money that is left over after they have paid for rent and food; the money that is known as ‘discretionary spend’.

What you have to always bear in mind is that you are competing for discretionary spend against all sorts of other goodies your potential customer can choose to spend it on. Like going to the cinema, mobile phone top-ups, beer and girls.

Once you have this clear in your mind you know far better how to go about getting that discretionary spend for your product. This means that the more you know about your potential customer and how they spend their money then the more of that money becomes yours!

But you are not just competing for their money, you are competing for their time.

It takes a lot of time to play a game, if they are going to get value for the money that they have spent. So in the summer they are outside more and you sell less games, but in the long summer holiday break sales pick up because they have a lot more free time.

Of course, famously, they buy less games when they discover girls because their time is taken up with romance. But once they settle down with a partner then they have time again to spend on games.

So is that worth a comment? If so, click the link and let everyone know.