Table of contents

Introduction....................................................................................................................Page 3

Main: A) Discuss the product and its primary users.......................................................Page 4

Main: B) Discuss the reasons why you think it was immediately withdrawn from the
market………………………………………………………………………............Page 5,6,7 and 8

Main: C) Do you think the product can still be re-introduced to the market?..................Page 9

Conclusion....................................................................................................................Page 10

References...................................................................................................................Page 11

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Introduction

Playing video games are very common nowadays. It has flourish until it have become a part
and parcel of our daily lives, especially to the younger generation like the teenagers. When
younger teenagers get together, especially the boys, one of their main conversation topics
will be video games. Also for partial of the young adults that have grow up from young age
playing video games, they have not stopped playing video games even when they have
mature.

For the earlier days, playing video games using a video game console is a very common
thing to do, as computers at that time is still not technology advanced to multi task to play
decent video games. (5) A video game console is a modified computer system that produces
a video display signal which is used with a display device like television or monitor to display
a video game and its main purpose is to play quality games. (Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia, Video game console)

(5) Video game console is a term used for game that is solely used for playing games and
not for other kinds of functions, for example the personal computer which is used for many
other functions, the hand phone that is used for many other functions too and also the
arcade game which is used for business is different from the video game console.
(Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Video game console)

Currently there are a few brands in the market that actually lead the current market like the
Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony Playstation 3 or the Nintendo Wii. But some years back, there are
many different brands and models of video game console in the video game console market.
But those brands have proven themselves to be less marketability in the video console
market and have stop manufacturing the less popular video game console.

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Main: A) Discuss the product and its primary users

Figure 1 . The ‘Atari Jaguar’

The video game console ‘Atari Jaguar’ (Fig 1) is a 64-bit gaming system and is the last video
game console marketed by Atari in 1993. (4) The Atari Jaguar was first released in New
York, San Francisco in November 1993 and was released to the rest of the world like Japan,
Europe, Australia etc in the late 1994. But only for a period of time that the Atari video game
console survived and the video game console the ‘Atari Jaguar’ was discontinued in 1996.
(Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Atari Jaguar) The video game console ‘Atari Jaguar’ is
proven for its product failure in the video game console market, thus forcing Atari to leave
the video game console market.

The Atari Jaguar was launch at a reasonable pricing which is much lower than some of its
competitors. Initially it sold well initially in the USA and sales figures is slightly better than its
competitor, Panasonic video game console ‘3DO’ but sales drop drastically after a while. But
the Atari video game console ‘Atari Jaguar’ pricing was two to three times lower than the
Panasonic ‘3DO’. Thus the Atari video game console ‘Atari Jaguar’ initial slightly higher
sales figure than the Panasonic ‘3DO’ is actually not that ideal.

Primary user for the video game console ‘Atari Jaguar’ will be students, which is still studying
in schools. Mostly teenagers and kids, thus the holiday seasons will be an important period
for video game console seller to promote their products. Makers for video game console will
normally give promotion and advertised their product greatly within or before that period.

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Main: B) Discuss the reasons why you think it was immediately withdrawn from the
market

Let’s look at the below Swot analysis table regarding the ‘Atari Jaguar’ (Fig 1) first before we
go into details (Alan Chapman, 1995 to 2010, SWOT Analysis)

SWOT ANALYSIS Table (1) of ATARI JAGUAR

Strengths: Weakness:

Well known branding in the market Complicated game pad

Advanced system at that time Lack of video games as it is difficult to

program games in this console
Reasonable Pricing

Opportunities: Threats:

Branding to become a company selling Higher technology gaming system by

advanced video game consoles, thus they competitors as the video game console
are able to sell at a higher price on their next market is always upgrading its technology on
product its products

Become a market leader of video game
console
Able to make its product well known world
wide or internationally
Lack of cash flow to continue producing and
marketing of another product, if current
product fails badly in sales

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Strengths

The Atari video console manufacturer made a name for itself in the eighties on introducing
the model ‘Atari 2600’ to the market. The ‘Atari 2600’ (Fig 2) lead the market even with their
competitors more advanced technology video game console, making Atari a well known
brand for video game console market. (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Atari Jaguar) Thus
Atari was more advantageous in introducing a new product to the market.

Figure 2 . The ‘Atari 2600’

The ‘Atari Jaguar’ also comes with a 64 bit system that is more advanced than its
competitors. It surpassed its competitors in processing power and also could display more
onscreen colors.

The ‘Atari Jaguar’ was sold at a very reasonable pricing at USD$249.99 and at that time,
comparing with the other video game console, it was price at a reasonable pricing.

Weakness

The game pad design (Fig 3) of the video game console ‘Atari Jaguar’ was very complicated,
it consist of 15 buttons and consumers complained it was too difficult to control. Also the
market review of the game pad is being review under the category of ‘bad design’. (The
video game critic, Atari console review, copyright 1999-2008)

Figure 3 . The ‘Atari Jaguar’ game pad

The ‘Atari Jaguar’ was also an extremely difficult video game console to program video
games. Thus third party video games makers, poses a great challenge to create video
games for the ‘Atari Jaguar’. Creating a scenario whereby there was only a limited choice of

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games for the ‘Atari Jaguar’. As most third party video games makers was unable to create
video games for the ‘Atari Jaguar’ or had to use more resources to create the video games,
thus they would rather create for other models of video game console.

Opportunities

The ‘Atari Jaguar’ is able to brand itself as a company selling advanced technology products,
if it is able to succeed in promoting the ‘Atari Jaguar’. Thus they are able to sell their next
product at a higher pricing, as they are reputable for producing highly advanced technology
products and consumers will be able to accept the product at a higher price, as they are
buying a product that is of a highly advanced technology grade.

If the ‘Atari Jaguar’ is able to succeed in their product. They might become a market leader
in the video game console market. Due to the fact, their price is reasonable and their
technology for the video game console is also advanced.

Also they might become a world wide well known brand like ‘Coke’ or ‘McDonalds’. Giving
them an edge in every new product they introduce in the future.

Threats

Technology is always advancing every day. Even for video game console, the technology is
always advancing. Video game console manufacturer is always looking at improving their
next new video game console, especially in terms of technology of the video game console.
The ‘Atari Jaguar’ has advanced their technology in this product. But there will be always
another video game console manufacturer wanted to outshine the technology of the ‘Atari
Jaguar’ and create another product that is of a higher technology.

Since Atari have invested huge amounts of funds on the ‘Atari Jaguar’, it would be in
financial difficulties, if the product has very low sales.

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Conclusion for: Main B)

No doubts the ‘Atari Jaguar’ have its own strengths in technology, pricing and branding, but
its weakness is a huge one. As for consumer who uses the video game console, their main
concern is only one and that is to play games. Thus if there isn’t much games to choose
from if they use the ‘Atari Jaguar’, consumer will naturally choose other models that can
provide them with more variety of games. For this reason, the ‘Atari Jaguar’ will not be a
product wanted by most consumers.

Also as the main reason to use a video game console is to play games and have fun, thus
the game pad plays an important role in the video game console. The ‘Atari Jaguar’ is too
complicated for many users and it’s rather hard for them to get adjusted using a game pad
that has more than 15 buttons in a short period of time. Many consumers wanted to fun with
the video games straight away upon using the video game console in a short time and not
train themselves for a long period of time to get adjusted to the game pad before they can
really start having fun with the video game they are playing.

From the manufacturer point of view, they might think highly of their products and the
possible opportunities they might have in the market if they succeed in the ‘Atari Jaguar’. As
there are more strengths, opportunities than the deadly weakness they have not discovered
in short term. Thus they are willingly to take the risk in producing and marketing the ‘Atari
Jaguar’.

But from the consumer’s point of view, it’s totally a different view. Initially they might find the
video games to be interesting and curious about the high technology video game console.
But after some time when they are not so curious about the high technology video game
console and bored of the limited varieties of video game the ‘Atari Jaguar’ can offer. They
will move on and switch to another model or brand that can offer them longer and easier
entertaining pleasure. Thus it is can be understand that why the ‘Atari Jaguar’ loses its place
in the video game console market shortly after it was introduced.

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Main: C) Do you think the product can still be re-introduced to the market?

For technology based product like the video game console, the technology is always
advancing. Even if Atari produced many new video games that can be used by the ‘Atari
Jaguar’, the standard of the games will be much lower than the current games in the market
due to the outdated technology of the ‘Atari Jaguar’ comparing to current video game
console like the Sony Play station 3. Popular videos games nowadays are mostly 3
dimension graphic but the ‘Atari Jaguar’ will still be 2 dimension graphic no matter what, due
to the outdated technology in ‘Atari Jaguar’. Also the response of the video game will also be
much slower.

If the video game console loses its market worth after a short period of time, it will not be
advisable to bring back the product back into the market after a long period of time. As there
are always models of video game console that is of a higher technology after a certain
period of time.

The ‘Atari Jaguar’ has suffered a big financial loss due to its low sales and thus creating a
bad image of the ‘Atari Jaguar’ to the public. If the ‘Atari Jaguar’ was to be re-introduced
back into the market, extra efforts for marketing have to be done on the model ‘Atari Jaguar’
than other new models of video game console being introduced to the video game console
market. For extras efforts on marketing, can simply lead to conclusion for increase in
resources and cost. Thus if the ‘Atari Jaguar’ was to be re-introduced to the video game
console market, it will incur unnecessary use of resources and cost, like extra advertising
cost and extra manpower to create sales.

Thus it is not advisable for the ‘Atari Jaguar’ to be re-introduced to the market.

8
Conclusion

The product life of the ‘Atari Jaguar’ is short. It has only grown slightly in the introduction
stage and before reaching its growth, maturity stage, it has started to decline.

The manufacturers never do anything to improve the product before the growth phase and
thus caused the product to fail and Atari was forced to merge with another company in a
reverse takeover. Ending Atari contribution to the video game industry.

If Atari was to make improvements once they seen a problem in their video game console ,
the ‘Atari Jaguar’, they might have a chance to rectify it and maybe the history of ‘Atari’ might
be different.

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References

1. Alan Chapman, 1995 to 2010, SWOT Analysis [Online]

Available at: http://www.businessballs.com/swotanalysisfreetemplate.htm
[Accessed 23 April 2010]

2. Atari Museum, Jaguar section [Online]

Available at:
http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/consoles/jaguar/jagmenu/jagmenu.htm
[Accessed 28 April 2010]

3. The video game critic, Atari console review, copyright 1999-2008 [Online]
Available at: http://www.videogamecritic.net/jaguarinfo.htm
[Accessed 28 April 2010]

4. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Atari Jaguar [Online] (Updated 28 April 2010)
Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Jaguar
[Accessed 28 April 2010]

5. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Video game console [Online] (Updated 27 April 2010)
Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_console
[Accessed 27 April 2010]

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