Abstract
Unlike the PC market, the console manufacturers are not as numerous and diverse. Moreover, most actors are both equipment manufacturers and suppliers of programs. In 2001, the global market for game consoles has risen more than 20 billion dollars. The story seems to have proved that the market cannot accommodate more than 3 major players simultaneously. What this last decade tends to prove given that rivals Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo ousted Sega by market laws and that the video game market is saturated and tightens around these three actors.
Beyond the three major video game actors we can speak of a market tending towards saturation. A trade and marketing war between them since the launch of the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3, and whose main strategies will inevitably get sector diversification. If the quasi-monopoly of Microsoft in the computer field may be sufficient to ensure returns on investment in its video games industry and game console, Nintendo has a loyal customer for its expertise and its virtual world, which remains the oldest among these three. But while the PlayStation 2 accounted for more than half of revenue, Sony's latest version, the PS3 would require the business press by at least 50 million copies sold so that Sony could get a first return on investment.
"A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or modified computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device (a television, monitor, etc.) to display a video game." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_console)
Moreover it could be decline into consoles that plug into monitor to display the game or on smart phones screens which are easily transportable.
Forecast for 2010: Nintendo Wii, Sony Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 will takes off due to important innovations in terms of graphic and technologic development.
