Each article in this this issue provides new insight into demand for media goods. The first revisits network effects in two-sided markets by focusing on the quality and exclusivity of video games. The study finds gamers tend to play just a few widely popular games. Popular games therefore have an outsize influence on the success of video game consoles. The second article examines effects from the introduction of a cloud-based service that give consumers continuous access to movies. The study found sales of movies with cloud-based access increased, and that rentals of movies decreased among some consumers. The third study compares managers’ sales forecasts for movies, books and music with forecasts based on models. The study finds that managers’ forecasts are only superior for a few best-selling media products. Model-based forecasts are better for products with medium and low sales The first article is “Platform Competition in the Video Game Console Industry: Impacts of Software Quality and Exclusivity on Market Share” by Haeyop Song, Jaemin Jung, and Daegon Cho. This study extends the literature on network effects in two-sided markets by focusing on the characteristics of six video game consoles and their associated software. The study examines complimentary products by focusing on how quality and exclusivity influence software and hardware competition in video game markets. The study uses reviews of video game software to measure quality. A panel data set with information about 10 years of sales was assembled for the study. The sample included 2,392 software and console combinations, and 1,396 unique video games. The findings did not support the conventional wisdom that most video game software plays “a critical role in hardware sales, and vice versa”. Instead, a few high-quality games dominate sales because gamers buy an average of just eight games during the life of a game console. A high-quality game that is exclusive to one console can significantly influence the early success of a gaming platform. However, software that works on multiple-platforms is valuable to mature gaming consoles because consumers are interested in “relatively small numbers of attractive products”. The authors discuss the implications of their findings for software and hardware developers. “The Introduction of Infinite Durability to an Information Good and the Decision to Buy or Rent: Evidence from the Film Industry” by Gabriel Pablo Axarlian is based on a natural experiment in the film industry. The experiment occurred when five major film studios introduced a cloud-based system to give consumers continuous access to digital copies of films. A sixth studio, Disney, did not offer customers access to the cloud-based system from 2011 to 2014. Disney’s lack of participation “provided the perfect conditions for a natural experiment to analyze exactly how infinite durability affects consumption patterns of information goods, using films as a proxy”. Consumers purchased access to the cloud-based systemwhen they bought a DVD or Blu-ray copy of a film. The panel-data set examined the sales of 286 films over 73 weeks. Consumer who purchased DVDs were considered low-value consumers, and those who purchased Blu-ray were high-value consumers. The introduction of the cloud-based system increased movie sales to all consumers. However, high-value consumers were more sensitive to infinitely durable movie access. The likelihood of renting films on Blu-ray decreased, which was not the case for films on DVDs. JOURNAL OF MEDIA ECONOMICS 2017, VOL. 30, NO. 3, 97–98 https://doi.org/10.1080/08997764.2018.1458452

中文翻译：

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两侧市场的质量和排他性的影响，无限耐用性对信息产品消费的影响，以及改善媒体产品的销售预测

本期中的每篇文章都提供了对媒体商品需求的新见解。第一个通过关注视频游戏的质量和排他性来重新审视双边市场的网络效应。研究发现，游戏玩家往往只玩一些广受欢迎的游戏。因此，流行游戏对视频游戏机的成功有着巨大的影响。第二篇文章研究了引入基于云的服务的影响，该服务使消费者能够持续访问电影。该研究发现，通过云访问的电影销量有所增加，而部分消费者的电影租金有所下降。第三项研究将经理对电影、书籍和音乐的销售预测与基于模型的预测进行比较。研究发现，管理者的预测只对少数最畅销的媒体产品更好。基于模型的预测更适用于中低销量的产品 第一篇文章是 Haeyop Song、Jaemin Jung 和 Daegon Cho 的“视频游戏机行业的平台竞争：软件质量和排他性对市场份额的影响”。本研究通过关注六款视频游戏机及其相关软件的特征，扩展了关于双边市场网络效应的文献。该研究通过关注质量和排他性如何影响视频游戏市场中的软件和硬件竞争来检查免费产品。该研究使用视频游戏软件的评论来衡量质量。为该研究收集了一个包含 10 年销售信息的面板数据集。该样本包括 2,392 个软件和控制台组合，以及 1,396 个独特的视频游戏。调查结果并不支持大多数视频游戏软件“在硬件销售中起着关键作用，反之亦然”的传统观点。相反，少数高质量游戏主导了销售，因为游戏玩家在游戏机的生命周期内平均只购买 8 款游戏。一款主机独有的高质量游戏可以显着影响游戏平台的早期成功。然而，在多平台上运行的软件对于成熟的游戏机来说是有价值的，因为消费者对“数量相对较少的有吸引力的产品”感兴趣。作者讨论了他们的发现对软件和硬件开发人员的影响。“将无限耐用性引入信息商品以及购买或租赁的决定：Gabriel Pablo Axarlian 的《来自电影业的证据》基于电影业的一项自然实验。当五个主要电影制片厂引入基于云的系统让消费者连续访问电影的数字副本时，该实验就发生了。第六家工作室迪士尼在 2011 年至 2014 年期间没有向客户提供访问基于云的系统的权限。迪士尼缺乏参与“为自然实验提供了完美的条件，以准确分析无限耐用性如何影响信息产品的消费模式，使用电影作为代理人”。消费者在购买电影的 DVD 或蓝光副本时购买了对基于云的系统的访问。面板数据集检查了 73 周内 286 部电影的销售情况。购买 DVD 的消费者被视为低价值消费者，而购买蓝光的则是高价值消费者。基于云的系统的引入增加了对所有消费者的电影销售。然而，高价值消费者对无限持久的电影访问更为敏感。租借蓝光电影的可能性降低了，而 DVD 电影则不然。2017 年媒体经济学杂志，卷。30，没有。3, 97–98 https://doi.org/10.1080/08997764.2018.1458452