Game Console Perceptual Map

The video game industry is expected to reach $36.2 Billion in revenues in 2017.  Two companies dominate the industry:  Sony and Microsoft.  They make the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One respectively.  Nintendo that makes the 3DS and has a small portion of the market share also joins them.  Nintendo’s 3DS is handheld as opposed to the two other consoles, which need to be connected to a television, so Nintendo is not as much of a direct competitor. As for the 15% that was allocated to the “Other” category, it consists of these three companies’ old consoles and will continue to lose market share in the future. Of all the metrics that a console could be judged on the two that I found most important were the quality of the graphics and the amount of new games that are being released. When comparing the Xbox and PlayStation these are the only two metrics where there seems to be an appreciable difference.  They are neck and neck with price, storage capabilities, online costs and most features. The quality of graphics and the number of new games are the two categories that seem to have the biggest influence on the customer’s decision.

On the x-axis of the perceptual map shown below you will see the ranking of the quality of graphics. The Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 both are high quality and close but the PS4 has the advantage. The 3DS falls behind but that is to be expected with the nature of it being handheld. It is also to be expected with the older consoles.

The next metric is the amount of games released in 2017 and that is found on the y-axis. PS4 is also ahead in this category with Xbox trailing behind.  The 3DS has significantly fewer new games but it does have the most overall games available.  The category of old consoles does worst in this category.

As you can see in the perceptual map above, the higher the company score in graphics quality and the amount of games released, the higher the amount of market share.  These features are directly correlated to sales. It stands to reason that if Xbox has better graphics and releases more games, they would attract more customers and gain market share.  These are the only metrics in which there is a noticeable difference between the products. Both companies have recognized the importance of these metrics. Both Sony and Microsoft are unveiling new versions of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One that are supposed to have cutting edge graphics.  If Xbox can match or even surpass the graphics quality of the PS4, it will be very interesting to see how it affects their market share.