Date of Award

5-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Communication, Technology, and Society

Committee Chair/Advisor

Dr. James Gilmore

Committee Member

Dr. Kristen Okamoto

Committee Member

Dr. Skye Wingate

Abstract

Two of the most prominent franchises in the video game industry are God of War and Gears of War. These franchises, produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) and Xbox Game Studios (XGS), respectively, and their presentation through company blogs offer insight into the franchise management strategies and franchise conceptualizations that their parent companies have. Understanding these franchising aspects furthers knowledge on how these companies, two of the three largest video game producers, engage in franchising behaviors through discourse. Utilizing a framework of the discourse of franchise paratexts, this thesis examines those franchising tactics and discursive frames that the companies use as well as how they compare to each other, due to their market position as competitors. Through a discourse analysis of 49 blog posts (27 from SIE; 22 from XGS) over the last two development cycles (2018-2022), this thesis discovered that while both companies use the blogs as a marketing tool, SIE engages in more artistic and community framing while XGS focuses on product marketing and direct consumer outcomes. As such, their differing frames provide insight into how the franchises are conceptualized: an artistic achievement for SIE and a part of a product line for XGS.

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.