Market Recognition

[kampfgulasch]

Hello all,

Since Alpha 9 officially released I've played quite a bit of Software Inc. Really enjoying my time, too. There's just one thing I don't really understand.

How does market recognition work and how can I reliably (if at all) increase it?

Basically I started a new game and did the usual contracts until I had enough money to make a 2D-Editor. I set out with the idea to gain high market recognition in the 2D-Editor market.
I made some other products until newer OS came out, that allowed more features for a new 2D-Editor.

One of those products was a CMS (financial). It was quite a success but at some point the sales went down as usual. 50000 people used the software at its peak. Weirdly this number never went down much which is what usually happens with my software. Instead after weeks of almost no sales the demand for my CMS software skyrockets again even outselling my new 2D-Editor with great quality.

After looking for what might have caused this sudden demand I realized I gained market recognition in the CMS market.
I thought by releasing multiple products of the same type (like 2D-Editors) I will gain market recognition. But I never made a second CMS and got market recognition. On the other hand I made a second 2D-Editor (great quality) and did not gain market recognition.

I follow the same marketing strategy for all products. High budget (relative to my money in the bank ofc) at release and the following weeks. Low budget when the sales went down a lot. Medium budget when there is still a sizeable amount of people using the software.

So basically I'm confused how the market recognition system works. Maybe more experienced players can explain to me, why I gained market recognition in the CMS category and not the 2D-Editor category?

[Niyazigo]

This game is weird but i love it.

[Niyazigo]

Im the biggest company in the market with all great and outstanding products, but when i release something as a 5th sequel its still says im pretty new in the market and they never believe if im gonna be sucessful and sell some copies.

[freelancer909]

Did yur 2D out sell the competion? Maket recognation is based on who sells the most of that product at that time. You can lose it if you don't sell more then the other companies combined. Your CMS may have shot up because of various reasons. It sometime happens with old games too. It may be the only CMS of that type available for a awhile. Don't count on it happening very often.

[Noma]

I may be wrong, but I think that market recognition is directly tied to the number of copies you sell. you could release, let's say, ten 2D editor but if they all sell badly, you won't gain market recognition. But if you release a product with a lot of success, your market recognition will improve overnight.

[kampfgulasch]

Hm, I don't remember exactly but I'm pretty sure that the competition sold way more copies than I did.
After playing some more I gained market recognition in 4 other categories. So it's probably just a combination of quality, marketing and success.