Week 2 EOC- Boston Consulting Group- Video Games

  

                The recession is starting to show a decline in Video game sales, an industry that with growing profits until last year was looked upon as untouchable in whatever market we are in.  Once cash cow entertainment consoles such as Microsoft’s X-Box and Nintendo’s Wii seem to be on a sharp downward slope to dog heaven if the numbers are any indication of the future life expectancy for these game systems. According to Digital Trends, “ The intrepid analysts at the NPD Group released their monthly report on the US video game market on Thursday and the outlook for the industry-in-flux isn’t pretty. August video game, console, and accessory sales were down a whopping 20 percent year-on-year, plummeting to just under $517 million from over $647 million during the same period in 2011. http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/digital-manifest-destiny-august-sales-mark-the-continuing-decline-of-video-game-retail/ .

                In my opinion its easy to see that under the Boston Consumer Group format, there are plenty of consoles that have already been banished into life of Dogdom, such as the highly outdated Playstation 1, Sega Genesis, and Nintendo 64. However it is interesting to see how the latest units such as X-Box and PS3 are doing.  It News Africa said, “Global sales of Xbox360 consoles were down from 2.7 million units between 1 January and 31 March to only 1.4 million units sold – a drop of 48%. Another Microsoft product that experienced a dip in sales was the Kinect peripheral for the Xbox, although Microsoft declined to supply numbers”. http://www.itnewsafrica.com/2012/04/global-xbox-sales-on-the-decline/ .  What that article tells me that if you had to describe X-Box and where it fits within the BCG, it would hard to at very best not classify it a dog, or a product leading to be a dog from what was once a dominating cash cow in any market.

                The future of video game sales as said by  Gamespot.com, “The business of making and selling video games is changing. In the last five years, the games industry has gradually moved away from established business practices and towards alternative platforms and delivery channels, from digital distribution and free-to-play to self-publishing and crowd-funding. This shift, once believed to pose a threat to the industry's future, has paved the way for new ideas and technologies to take hold, establishing independent revenue streams and opening up the existing market to a wave of new creators and consumers.” http://www.gamespot.com/features/the-digital-revolution-how-consumers-are-driving-the-future-of-games-retail-6396713/ .