TY - RPRT A1 - Moritz, Karl-Heinz A1 - Schöber, Timo A1 - Stadtmann, Georg T1 - Product differentiation in video games: a closer look at Fortnite's success N2 - Fortnite is the most successful video game in terms of revenues generated. Since it belongs to the 'free-to-play games', the company has to optimize the in-game-shop to generate revenues. Product differentiation is one possibility to optimize the profitability of the game. In this paper, we use a microeconomic approach in order to highlight the implications of product differentiation for the profit maximization problem. N2 - Fortnite ist gemessen an den erzielten Einnahmen das erfolgreichste Videospiel. Da es zu den "Free-to-Play-Spielen" gehört, muss das Unternehmen den In-Game-shop optimieren, um Einnahmen zu generieren. Die Produktdifferenzierung ist eine Möglichkeit, die Rentabilität des Spiels zu optimieren. In diesem Beitrag verwenden wir einen mikroökonomischen Ansatz, um die Auswirkungen der Produktdifferenzierung auf das Problem der Gewinnmaximierung hervorzuheben. T3 - Discussion papers of the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics - 419 KW - Fortnite KW - gaming KW - Freemium KW - product differentiation KW - market segmentation Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:521-opus4-6984 ER - TY - RPRT A1 - Stadtmann, Georg A1 - Tosun, Aynur Dilan A1 - Pierdzioch, Christian T1 - Are female skins sold for a lower price? Evidence from the Fortnite game N2 - Much significant research has been done to shed light on discrimination of females in, for example, labor markets. Less is known, in contrast, about the amount of discrimination in the virtual world of online gaming. In an early study, Castronova (2004) finds that female avatars receive about 10\% lower prices in online auctions. In this research note, we re-examine the pricing of avatars sold in the Fortnite game. We cannot reject the null hypothesis that female and male avatars are sold at the same prices. We also account for the impact of a Fortnite sex scandal on the price differential between female and male avatars. T3 - Discussion papers of the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics - 420 KW - gender discrimination KW - market segmentation KW - gaming KW - Freemium KW - product differentiation Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:521-opus4-7738 ER -