The worldwide video gaming industry held its breath as 2008 came to a close. Did they manage to beat the year prior? With national economies on the brink of failure, companies closing left and right and governments scrambling to recover, could the gaming industry survive, or better yet, grow? Video Games offers a better value in terms of entertainment and that means they are weathering the storm fairly well.
The Land Down Under Australia’s PC gaming sector had a break out year with a 4.2% increase selling $21.2M Australian in December alone. The gaming industry shot up from the previous year with a 47.8% increase coasting to a cool $1.96 billion in sales. Alone software accounted for around $1 billion, a 48.5 percent increase from 2007. Hardware unit sales saw an increase of 36 percent while software saw just over a 42 percent bump. Nintendo certainly led the charge as its hardware platforms boasted 66 percent of hardware sales and they also nailed the top four software slots with Wii Fit, Wii Play w/Remote in first and second. Mario Kart w/Wheel zoomed into third and Mario & Sonic at the Olympics just missed a medal finishing in fourth.
PC Gaming Worldwide The PC Gaming Alliance put out their report on the PC gaming industry for 2008 just in March. Their findings state that the PC gaming platform is alive and well and totals about $11 Billion US in worldwide revenue, more than any single platform from Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo. It’s an emerging platform of choice in Asia and Eastern Europe and took in a lion’s share of over $6B in North America and Europe. Broadband penetration helped to fuel online gaming as well as digital distribution systems like Steam, GamersGate, and more. Massive Multiplayer Online Games were leading the charge in revenue and profits with some games hauling in more than $100M per year while World of Warcraft is generating around $1B annually in revenue. Casual Gaming also took a lead in the PC Gaming realm and many portals are now generating well over $100 Million in annual revenue as well.
Japan’s Slippery Gaming Slope Forget earthquakes, karaoke and radioactive lizards. Japan has other problems, mainly in their declining video games industry. Overall 2008 was not a good year in the market with a total decline of around 11%. This was mostly due to the end lifecycle of the Playstation 2 in the market, no matter what Sony says. Even sales of the king of portable games Nintendo’s DS Touch Generation software took a small hit in the pocketbook. However good news did poke its head up and take a look around as sales of the current generation of video game consoles saw a slight increase. With several big releases expected for 2009 it looks like the future might be bright there.
Overall Worldwide sales were up across the board by 11% in the three major markets (US, Europe and Japan) with 409.9 million units sold. The US and UK made up more than enough to cover the decline in Japan. 2009 is again expected to see another increase if key indicators are correct and it is shaping up to be the best year ever for video games.
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