James Delahunty
6 Nov 2008 19:28
According to research by retail experts, video games will prove to be Britain's number one form of entertainment in 2008, beating music and other video products for the first time. Verdict Research predicts the video games market will grow by £1.37 billion ($2.19 billion), about 42% in 2008. The figure outstrips music and video sales which were expected to stagnate anyway.
The entire video games market in the UK is valued at about £4.64 billion ($7.42 billion), compared to music and video at £4.46 billion ($7.13 billion). "The music and video market is not just suffering from a slowing of growth but a massive transfer of spend to online," said the report's author Malcolm Pinkerton. "So in actual fact, the sales via high street shops are being hit a lot harder than the overall growth figures would suggest."
The report claimed that the music market gained revenue from sales of digital downloads but was hurt by growing piracy, price deflation and a decline in physical CD sales. "Games represent a relatively cheap, but also exciting and innovative pastime," said Matthew Piner, author of the Video Games and Consoles Retailing report. "As more people save money by staying in, a video game, although it may cost three of four times as much as a DVD or CD, offers much more longevity and hence better value for money."
The Entertainment Retailers Association agreed that the games sector had a great year, but took issue with the figures. It points out that the videogame figures include both hardware and software units sold. "So to compare like with like, you'd have to add in DVD players and CD players," said ERA spokesman Steve Redmond.