Week 2 EOC: Boston Consulting Group - Video Games

The Star - According to NPD “the group found that console sales jumped 4% compared to last December, with the Nintendo Wii unsurprisingly leading the way with 3.81 million units moved (up from 2.15 million the previous year). That's followed by the collective DS offerings at 3.31 million and, somewhat surprisingly, the PlayStation 3, which racked up sales of 1.36 million (its first time cracking the one million mark) compared to the Xbox 360's 1.31 million.”(http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/15/npd-wii-leads-video-game-industry-to-biggest-sales-month-ever/).

The Cash Cow – According to Gamepro.com “The entire NPS unit posted a sales and operating revenue of 325.9 billion yen ($3.7 billion USD), up 32.4 percent over the 246.1 billion yen posted this same quarter last year. Losses in the unit also shrank from 36.7 billion yen ($420 million USD) to 3.8 billion ($43 million).” (http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/215974/playstation-sales-bolster-sony-earnings-quarter/). This is why I believe that the Sony brand and the play station is a cash cow.

The question mark – According to an article written on pcmag.com Apple’s IPad is taking gaming seriously. “RALEIGH, North Carolina - Apple's iPAD tablet computer hasn't been out a week yet but there are already over 830 video games that have been developed to suit the large format, high definition, multi-touch screen. That number doesn't even include the nearly 25,000 iPod Touch and iPhone games that will also play on Apple's latest gadget which is a mix between a smartphone and a laptop but also clearly aims to cater for the growing numbers of gamers. "The iPad is the fourth step in the gaming evolution," said Gonzague de Vallois, senior vice president of publishing at Gameloft. (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2362384,00.asp). This is why I think that Apple will become a major player in the video gaming industry.

The Dog – According to softsailor technology and review “Microsoft has just posted its Q4 2010 earnings and things are way better than they were last year as the Redmond-based company has announced a $16.04 billion revenue which is a 22% increase over the last year.” “According to Microsoft, Xbox and Zune services made $679 million operating income from the total $5.93 billion operating income. Microsoft’s net income for Q4 2010 stands at $4.52 billion, while profit stands at $3.25 billion.” (http://www.softsailor.com/news/34073-microsoft-q4-2010-earnings-posted-16-04-billion-revenue-3-25-billion-profit.html). This is why I think that Microsoft and the xbox are the current dog of the industry.