Week 2 EOC: Boston Consulting Group - Video Games

The Video Game Industry is a fluctuant market. It is constantly changing, but the recent polls and numbers show that the market is slowly decaying. And console sales are going down as well. “If console gaming were a first-person shooter, it would be taking heavy fire right now. A red hue would envelop the viewable screen from all sides, an ominous sign of spilled blood.” http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/09/tech/gaming-gadgets/console-gaming-dead/index.html

By analyzing the consoles with the BCG (Boston Consulting Group) approach we could sort this way:

The Xbox 360 falls in the “Cash Cow” because it is still selling, but it is slowly moving into the “Dog” since the sales are going down, and they aren’t coming with anything knew, besides from the Kinect, which only helped a little. As it was said in the zdnet.com article, “Microsoft sold 1.4 million consoles during January to March of this year, a precipitous drop of 48 percent compared to the same period last year. This in turn resulted in a fall in revenue for the Xbox business of 33 percent, down to $584 million.” http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/xbox-360-sales-down-by-almost-half/19902

The PS3, as well as the Xbox 360, is a “Cash Cow” slowly moving into the “Dog” category, pretty much for the same reasons. The PS3 did even worst in their attempt to step in the world physically interactive gaming with their release of the PlayStation Move, which was a total failure.

The Wii is surely a “Dog”, and it’s been that way for while now, because even though it promised a lot of innovation it failed in the execution. Adding to that the release of the new Wii U, which made the old Wii even more obsolete. The Wii U on the other hand it’s a “Question Mark” because it’s the first new console since 2006, and it does bring some new features, but still, the sales haven’t really taken off.

The PC is pretty much a steady “Cash Cow”, computers are always selling constantly innovating, not only for gaming purposes. And actually computers are starting to get more popularity in the gaming industry, with more gamers changing from consoles to PC because of its possibility of being constantly upgraded and customized without having to buy an entire new unit. Also, the PC is taking a huge step in the gaming world with the “Steam Box” from valve: “Steam Box gaming hardware, the future of the Steam digital distribution platform, and even gaming itself.” http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/8/3852144/gabe-newell-interview-steam-box-future-of-gaming

Finally, we have the mobile gaming, which a huge “Star” first of all because cellphones are always selling for several different reasons, then they are always being reinvented. The biggest reason why mobile gaming is becoming so huge is because its making video games more accessible for everyone, people who had never played or truly enjoyed video games are finding themselves absorbed by silly little games like Angry Birds.

The Video Game Industry future is unsure, specially for the consoles, but one thing is for sure, consoles aren’t going down without a fight, so we can expect a lot interesting changes in the near future.