“Many video game executives say they remain positive about the industry, pointing to coming releases of big titles.”(WSJ.com) This quote puts into perspective exactly how the video game market works I feel. The market really can fluctuate for these video game companies depending on games being released pricing of products etc. Thats why I think when it comes to how these companies fit into the BCG they can be considered a combination of both a Cash Cow and a Star.
The companies that manufacture the systems such as Sony, Microsoft,Nintendo, etc. can definitely be considered as Cash Cows in my opinion. These are huge corporations that are able to sustain themselves even though their growth might not be large. Now of course these companies come out with different systems every few years however as far as the market is concerned most customers stay loyal to the system they are used to whether that be the Playstation from Sony or the Xbox from Microsoft. This can limit growth for the companies because there isn't much turnover of the customers generally they will stick to the system they know with the exception of a few customers switching systems when a new one appears.
On the other side the companies that actually make these game I would consider to be Stars. These companies need a lot of money to get these games off the ground and spend months to maybe even longer than a year perfecting their products in hopes of growth from consumers. These companies have to have that growth especially the smaller ones cause they might be working on just this one game for a whole year so they need the growth to come off their one product. Also important to note that these games can be the reason for maybe a consumer to switch consoles as some games are only made for a certain system. Customers loyal to the game will usually do what they need to play it. The video game market is overall a mixture of both Cash Cows and Stars.
