Game Theory in Companies: A Program-approach to Find all Nash equilibria in Games with Two Players

Abstract

Game theory is a famous mathematical formula for economic decision-making. When two companies launch competing games within a similar time frame in the game industry, they must choose wisely between launch dates, trailer release dates, and launch platforms to seek the highest return and lower risk. This report turns the three main strategies of the release time, the preview time, and the release platform into specific values and finds the optimal strategy choice using nash equilibria. Nash equilibrium is an essential concept in finding the optimal solution. Given the complexity of finding the equilibria, computational tools are used for the task. Software like Gambit, Game Theory Explorer and python programs are used for computing all nash equilibria. This paper quantifies the three main reasons that may affect the sales result: the timing and order of the trailer, the interval between launch days, and the release platform, and turning these factors into a pay-off matrix. According to the calculation results on those pay-off matrices, this paper formulates a set of well-founded game sales methods to maximize the company's profits.