Week 2 EOC: Boston Consulting Group - Video Games

When it comes to video games, hardcore gamers are willing to purchase a brand new game at full retail price the day it is released to get started on the missions or leveling-up as quickly as possible. With drops in consumer satisfaction (redundant story-lines, character limitations, and very little improvements on prior games) people tend to shy away from getting the newest releases the moment they get on the shelves. When the CEO of Activision, Eric Hirshberg, was working on Call of Duty: Ghosts, he had to also put efforts in that companies cash cow “Spyro the Dragon.” GameInformer said “while Call of Duty became a juggernaut before his entry into the industry, Hirshberg was critical to the launch and subsequent wild success of Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure in 2011.” - http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2013/09/23/feeding-the-cash-cows-activision-39-s-approach-to-game-brands.aspx

So even though the company was working on exciting new titles for consumers, they also had to appeal to the loyal fans of their already established brand.

The biggest part of the BCG approach to me is the question mark. This is where companies are trying to predict what the consumer wants or will become popular. They hope that this item will in-turn become a cash cow. However not every product in the question mark category will become profitable. An established game “Mario Party” has been a great series throughout Nintendo’s past. However when “Mario Party 10” was released it seemed like a recycled game. Forbes magazine said “After a few games, there wasn’t much content left that didn’t feel repetitive.” -http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2015/12/22/the-15-most-disappointing-video-games-of-2015/#6751deef1ce6 The series has been tarnished due to this bad game and will have to work hard in order to get the customer loyalty back.

The dog section of the BCG is where ideas or products go to die, either because of subpar quality, wrong timing for the product release, or an array of other things can cause a product to perform way less than expected. “Dino Crisis 3” is an example of that to me. The first two games in the series made me loyal to the game series but when they released the 3^rd game it fell short of expectations. Usgamer.net has said “Capcom Production Studio 4 tried to do something different with Dino Crisis 3, but their execution fell far below their hopes and dreams.” - http://www.usgamer.net/articles/10-games-that-killed-a-franchise

They should have tested the games in a bigger demographic to see if the last game in the series would be as appealing or not. Due to their lack of planning the franchise has failed.