Sunday, October 19, 2014

Week 2 EOC: Boston Consulting Group - Video Games

“The video game industry has come under increasing fire for fostering sedentary and asocial lifestyles among youth.  In response, Nintendo, the video game company, created the Wii Fit, which addresses public skepticism about the social value of video games by promoting exercise and personal fitness” (Boston Consulting Group).

While Nintendo was the forerunner with the creation of Wii Fit, there are numerous games similar to this on the market today.  The top 10 fitness video games are listed on CBS News.  Wii Fit Plus takes the lead at number 1.  According to CBS News, “Wii Fit includes more than 40 types of training activities designed to appeal to anyone from casual gamers to hardcore fitness buffs.  The “Plus” version has several new features, including new strength-training exercises, yoga activities and more balance mini-games."

Other games geared towards getting users into shape on the top ten list include; Your Shape for Xbox 360 Kinect, Active 2 for Wii, Dance Central for Xbox 360 Kinect, The Biggest Loser for Wii and Xbox 360 Kinect, Kinect Sports for Xbox 360, NFL Training Camp for Wii, Sports Champion for PS3, and my personal favorite, Zumba Fitness for PS3.

According to an article published by The Wall Street Journal 5 years ago, video game makers were losing sales.  From January to June of 2009, sales were normal, then plummeted 30 to 40 percent.  The reversal of fortune is likely to show up further in coming weeks. When Nintendo reports earnings Thursday, some analysts expect to see weaker revenue on a decline in Wii sales and slower-than expected software sales. Videogame retailer GameStop Corp., which reports earnings next month, is also projected to post less-robust results” (The wall Street Journal).


That issue was obviously fixed, for there are new games being developed and sold every day.  The creation of the new video-assisted exercise games may or may not have helped to increase revenue, but I’m thinking it must have due to the amount of games such as this on the market today.

No comments:

Post a Comment