Week 2 EOC: Boston Consulting Group - Video Games

I think other factors, besides consumers not wanting to purchase $60 games, should be considered in the reason why video game sales have been dropping. Besides consumers keeping a close eye onto their bank accounts, current events have been taking a toll on why video game sales have been going down.  After the shooting at Sandy Hook, there has been a nationwide spread to push for gun control. Violent video games have been taking the blame for the shooting, resulting in many families declining any further purchases on video games especially the ones with first-person shooting.  “The news came amid a nationwide push to reduce gun violence, which many are connecting to violent video games and movies. Vice President Joe Biden leads a task force on policy proposals and has promised to send ideas to Obama…” (http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/01/11/december-video-game-retail-sales-drop-22-percent/)Another reason is due to the video game industry switching from physical hardware to digital. Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE online service offers digital download for many Xbox titles. "Although we believe that the ongoing transition from the physical to the digital platform will ultimately benefit the video game industry (due to the cost effectiveness), low priced digital games have failed to offset the rapid decline of high-priced retail sales in recent times."(http://finance.yahoo.com/news/dismal-video-game-sales-2012-161853534.html). These downloads still priced at the usual $60 and are now in competition with the mobile gaming platform, where most of those downloads you can find for $5 or less and sometimes even for free. Lastly, another factor that makes a play in the video game industry’s decline in sales is the lack of titles.  The top-selling game for 2012 was Activision’s “Call of Duty: Black Ops II.” Military first-person shooter games have one of the most popular genres for the past four years. Other popular titles were Halo 4, Assassin’s Creed III, and Madden NFL 13. It is likely that gamer’s saved up their money just for the purchase of these popular franchises, meaning other titles released in 2012 like Dishonored, Borderlands 2, and Mass Effect 3, fell short. "Gamers reserved the bulk of their retail dollars for these popular titles, which they were likely to play for dozens or even hundreds of hours online with friends."(http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jan/10/business/la-fi-ct-video-games-sales-20130111)