1.1 DEMAND FORECAST
Demand Forecast – Prediction of a future demand for a product on the basis of past events or prevailing trends.
The prevalence of gaming throughout the world is seeing an increase in games sales. Gaming has evolved from an addition to your TV to an immersive subculture where people can escape and assume an entirely new persona. From PCs, to laptops, to consoles, to handheld devices, gaming can take many forms. Traditional gaming required hardware inputs via a keyboard or controller.
Trend analysis USD 108.9B, of which 46% of the market is from the Asia Pacific region with year on year growth of 9.2%. The global gaming market is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 7% during the 2018-2022 forecast period, primarily owing to adoption of AR/VR gaming (Businesswire 2017). Report by Gran View Research, Inc. suggests that the global gaming industry is anticipated to reach $171.96B by 2025, registering a CAGR of 6.5% during the same forecast period. PR Newswire (2018) indicates that the technological advancements in gaming hardware and software are anticipated to accelerate market growth over the next eight years. The Asia Pacific market is expected to gain more traction, attaining a market size of USD 86.84 billion by 2025 (PR Newswire 2018)
E-sports is organized, competitive computer gaming that can be staged in front of live audiences and streamed online to millions more across the world. In 2014 more than 40,000 attended the League of Legends World Championship finals, there were 27,000,000 people watching online. By 2016 the same tournament had attracted 43,000,000 viewers online and the winning team shared USD 2.7m in prize money (BBC 2017). Prize money like this has given rise to professional gamers, English Premier League club Manchester City are among many to employ professional gamers to represent them while competing in e-sport events. Consequently, there are young gamers aspiring to be like their e-sports heroes.
E-sports will become a medal event at the 2022 Asian Games and there is the possibility of e-sports becoming an Olympic sport with it being considered as a ‘demonstration’ event at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games (BBC 2017).
Demand forecast will be able to assist in short term objectives and will be helpful with retail assortment, it will be important to have the mix of products right at each point in time. Even localizing this assortment at certain stores to account for local preferences. For example, city stores will be serving a different demographic than that of a store in a suburban shopping center. Control of supply chains to ensure the best products are always available at the best prices for our customers. (Fisher & Vaidyanathan 2014).
Medium term objectives would include moving into new markets within the Asia Pacific region where 46% of global gaming currently exists and will become larger
Long term objectives planning a move into new markets on a global basis, creating alliances through licensing...
