Video games: challenges in Product Management

This short case is authored by Venkatesh Krishnamurthy for the purpose of teaching IT Product
Management. All names, trademarks and service marks belong to the corresponding owners and are
acknowledged.

08 June 2021

Author:

Venkatesh Krishnamurthy

kvenkatesh.mail@gmail.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kvenkatesh

© Venkatesh Krishnamurthy, all rights reserved. kvenkatesh.mail@gmail.com

Video games were sold as software that were installable on the gamers’ computers. These were
packaged on Digital Versatile Discs (DVDs) and sold in shops around the world. Video games can be
classified in many ways: single player, multiplayer; casual, serious; priced, free; general, children’s, adult;
and many others. Buyers would buy these DVDs and install on their computers. A few games needed
activation with keys (available to the buyer upon registration on the game vendor’s website) or in the
DVD pack. These keys helped in avoiding piracy of such games, but could not eliminate piracy
completely.

Games were sold with ratings, akin to movies. A few were for all players while others were restricted to
adults. Adults had to provide their age proof to the retail stores, at the time of purchase, a practice
similar to age verification at the time of alcohol purchase prevalent in many countries. This was to avoid
children being exposed to sensitive content like violence, profanity, gore and sex.

Big Fire1 was a very popular video game. It had adult content. However, Crash Games 2, the US based
creator of Big Fire had taken precautions to serve different variants for appropriate gamers. To keep the
product line simple, the game distributed on the DVD was the same for all audiences. That meant all the
features were installed on the player’s computer when the game was installed from the DVD. The way
the features were hidden or shown to the player was based on the license key (typically an
alphanumeric English string, unique to every unit of sale / SKU). If the children’s licence key was input
after installation, only children-safe features of the game would get activated. If the adults’ key was
input, then the adult features (violence, sex, gore, profanity, etc.) would get activated in the game. It
meant that the consumers had to pick up the relevant pack from the shelves of the retailer, depending
on who would play. For example, parents buying Big Fire for their children to play were expected to pick
up the children rated pack for children. That pack would contain the DVD and the licence key
appropriate for children. Adults would pick up the adult rated pack, should they desired to have adult
features of the game for themselves. This was a way of implementing “Buyer beware” policy.

Big Fire became successful in the market and its popularity grew. This attracted the attention of
“Modders”. Modders are software engineers that create and release software, called “Mod” (plural:
Mods), to modify the specific features of games. These may be free or priced, depending on the
Modder. Modders may price their Mods for earning revenue and so priced Mods are created for popular
games, owing to their large install base. Many Modders created mods for Big Fire too.

One particular Mod caused an unprecedented crisis for Crash Games. A Modder from Nordic created a
Mod that could unlock the adult features of Big Fire, even though a particular installation was activated
with children’s licence key. This Modder distributed it free of charge and it became very popular. This
popularity of the Mod increased and the crisis snowballed due to the price difference between the
children’s variant and the adult variant of Big Fire. The children’s variant was priced less than the adult
variant; so adult consumers bought the lower priced children’s variant and unlocked the adult features
free of charge, by installing this free Mod.

Many children downloaded this mod and unlocked adult features of Big Fire. For example, they could
solicit the services of prostitutes (virtual characters) in a (virtual) bar, in this game. Upon discovering
this, the parents were outraged. They were angry with Crash Games for not taking adequate precautions

1
Fictional name
2
Fictional name

© Venkatesh Krishnamurthy, all rights reserved. kvenkatesh.mail@gmail.com

in controlling the adult features in the game that they had purchased for their children (despite buying
the children’s pack). The parents filed a law suit against Crash Games, to which the judge in the US
granted class action status. Things further worsened when parents who had bought this game (sold) in
other countries also started legal actions in their countries.

As a Product Head of Crash Games, you need to answer the following questions:

1. How will you deal with the current crisis your company is facing? Explain 5 steps that you will
take to resolve the crisis with minimal damage.
2. How do you think such a crisis can be avoided in the future releases of games?
3. As games are moving towards web (hosted on your company’s cloud) and packaged as apps for
mobile device users, how can you avert such a crisis?

© Venkatesh Krishnamurthy, all rights reserved. kvenkatesh.mail@gmail.com