Platform Selection by Software Developers: Theory and Evidence

要約

This paper analyzes platform selection by game developers in the Japanese home video game industry. In this paper, we employ a hypothesis derived from an elementary model of the affiliation by software developers. We hypothesize that the availability of game titles for a platform positively affects the game developers’ decisions on releasing game titles for that platform. We then use a mixed model that includes the characteristics of both game developers (individuals) and platforms (alternatives) to explore the data for Japan and find evidence supporting this hypothesis. Overall, the findings suggest that game developers expect the indirect network effect to apply when affiliating with platforms.