Factors Of Choosing a Digital Service For Purchasing Videogames in Russia

The focus of this work is to identify the factors influencing the choice of a digital distribution service for the purchase of video games by consumers from Russia of various age groups. The videogame market is in constant development and growth, currently outpacing the music and sports market in terms of volume. In order to succeed in this market, as well as stand out from larger and more experienced competitors, it is necessary to respond to key consumer needs. In addition, users from Russia face many problems due to the imposed sanctions and the inability to purchase videogames through familiar services directly. The main difficulties can be distinguished: 1) The inability to directly replenish your in-service wallet from a Russian bank card; 2) The inability to purchase a large number of videogames in the territory of the Russian Federation through an official in-service store; 3) A complete ban on activating individual games on Russian accounts. Despite the difficulties associated with the acquisition of videogames, Western digital services continue to be greater popularity than Russian counterparts. To find out what guarantees success in the video game sales market, it is necessary to identify which main factors influence the decision-making process on choosing a service for buying a video game. The first stage of the study will be the study of secondary information on consumer behavior when buying video games through such services, as well as what mechanics and attributes the services have in order to increase consumer interest in them. Next, the Russian market, its features, trends and main competitors will be analyzed. The next step will be to build hypotheses that will be tested to identify the most relevant factors influencing consumer behavior. To identify the key factors, a study was conducted that includes qualitative research in the form of in-depth interviews with respondents living in Moscow or St. Petersburg who have made at least one purchase of a video game since February 2022. Qualitative research is an auxiliary method that allows us to identify consumer insights, as well as correct the hypotheses initially put forward. The processing of the data obtained during this stage will be carried out through content analysis. The main method that will allow you to identify key factors will be a survey created using the Google.Forms toolkit, data from which will be analyzed to identify the determining factors for each consumer group. The end result of this work will be a list of recommendations for digital video game distribution services based on the study. It should be borne in mind that the study has a number of limitations that may affect the results obtained.