Esmir Hadzic
661035592
Intro to Management
2/4/14

Five Forces Analysis of the Video Game Industry

As in every industry, there are five competitive forces that determine the intensity of competition between the different players. These competitive forces are; the threat of entry of a new company in the industry, the threat of substitution by another product, the bargaining power of the buyers, the bargaining power of the suppliers, and rivalry among currently existing competitors. These competitive forces are easily seen in the video game industry, as there is already immense competition in the industry due to the similarities between the few major companies at play. Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft are the three large players in the present day video game industry. Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. has been a dominant company in the industry for over a decade with the PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2 platforms; however, it is struggling to stay at the helm of the industry due to the presence of these competitive forces. The threat of entry of a new company in the video game industry is a relatively weak competitive force for Sony. The video game industry is already dominated by three major players (Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft), thus the possibility of a new entrant in the industry is very low. Nintendo was established well before Sony as a major player, and Microsoft came into the industry in 2001 with the original Xbox. When Sony came in with the PlayStation 1, they completely took over the industry and continued to dominate until 2005. The entrance of Microsoft with their Xbox in 2001 was not a large threat to Sony because the PlayStation was already the video game console of choice for the majority of households. Now in the present industry, there is a high risk to enter the industry for it is already dominated by three major players, and the current