Week 2 EOC: Boston Consulting Group - Video Games

In today's world the video game industry has blossomed in ways that nobody had ever thought possible.  With such expansive growth within the industry there are bound to be individual platforms that rise above the rest, and others that flounder in the wave pool.  Though during this most recent year there have been more avenues for video games to be developed which has ' changed the game' so to speak.  The  most recent generation of video game systems; the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, and the Nintendo Wii have brought more variety to the world than ever before.  On top right now, the shining star of the gaming world has to be the birth of the mobile gaming craze.  Everyone who owns a phone or a tablet knows all about the wide variety of games to choose from, really something for everybody.

"How very 2012 it was for a game like Draw Something to capture the world’s attention in February; attract about 14 million players a day in April; seduce the FarmVille company Zynga to buy the game’s maker, Omgpop, for $180 million; and by the end of the month have its daily player base fall to 10 million daily."(http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/arts/video-games/video-game-retail-sales-decline-despite-new-hits.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0). This shows how popular the ' pick-up-and-play' option has become over such a short amount of time. 

While there are the new contenders rising to the top there are those platforms that are staying consistent in their quality and also with their sales.  The Playstation 3 had a rough start when it first joined the console wars, but has lasted for the past 5 years with a good amount of longevity. Releasing new flagship titles and partnering with popular game franchises is helping Sony keep its cash cow alive to this day. "Sony’s (SNE) “super slim” PlayStation 3 is off to a good start despite the console’s price actually increasing. According the MCV, Sony saw a 138% increase in PlayStation 3 sales with the release of its smaller, lighter game console in the United Kingdom." (http://bgr.com/2012/10/02/new-playstation-3-sales-sony-sees-138-percent-increase/).

It is easy to see who the two most popular and most functioning platforms are but what about the underdogs? Seeing as how popular these new mobile phone games are, (and how cheap) ts no wonder why people arent going out and buying handheld gaming devices like the Nintendo 3DS which even tries to incoporate the popularity of 3D entertainment in with their system, and still coming up unsuccessful.  Handheld devices simply cant compete against the availability and price range of the mobile games at the convenience of pulling a cell phone out of your pocket. " Nintendo again made a loss for the six months ended September 2012, but a far smaller one than last year. Nintendo lost 27.9 billion yen (£219m) in net income, an improvement on the 70 billion yen (£551m) lost during the same period in 2011." ( http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-10-24-3ds-sales-weaker-than-expected-overseas-despite-japan-success).  

The real question is...who will be next to rise up? There are more new systems being developed constantly and certainly more games being created all the time.  The question mark of the video gaming world is really trying to figure out how players will be able to continue playing in this new realm of gaming.  The power of the internet of course holds the key.  Currently there is no way of knowing who wil be the next big dog of the gaming industry.