Gaming biz will hit $18B in 2007
p2pnet news | Games:- Gaming ‘piracy’ has been reduced with Canadian sales charts as proof, says a new report.
Now, sales of hardware and software associated with gaming will soar to $18 billion by the end of 2007, it predicts.
In Canada, overall software sales were up more than 30%, to C$38.2 million ($35.9 million), “driven by strong sales of games for fixed consoles (a 43% increase in July 2007 compared to July 2006),” says the NPD Group.
“Games for portable consoles were also on an ascending trend, but only with an 8 percent gain.”
But the most spectacular growth came in gaming accessories, “which saw a dazzling 78 percent increase in July, exceeding C$10 million ($9.4 million) in sales,” says the report.
And Canada was the first country where Sony PlayStation 3s outsole the Xbox 360, with Sony’s console bought by around 15,000 people, compared to Microsoft’s which was bought by only 13,000 Canadians, says NPD, going on:
The king of the show North of the border was the almighty Nintendo though, which outpaced its rivals big time: Wii’s casual gaming fame helped it reach the hearts and hands of more than 36,000 owners last month, while the tiny, two-screened DS (which by the way is a short acronym for Developers’ System, not Dual Screen) managed to sell more than 46,000 units.
By comparison, Sony’s PlayStation Portable appealed to only 6,000 Canadians.
Having more hardware and software options available persuaded Canadians to visit gaming-related shops more often, a fact reflected in the amount of money they spent on gaming-related items.
“The entire industry saw revenues soar to C$84 million ($78.9 million) from the C$51.8 million ($48.7 million) registered in the same period last year, an increase of 62%,” says NPD, going on:
“This was mainly due to the revenues reaped from console hardware sales, which more than tripled in July 2007 compared to July 2006. Combined sales of
Guitar Hero Encore
The most popular games in the US were Activision’s Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s (in the category of new releases, ranked 4th in the July games top), but Wii “got the king’s crown” with Wii Play. Guitar Hero II for PS2 came second, with Microsoft’s Value Pack (included games vary) Xbox 360 ranking third, states the report, continuing:
“The US figures show significant improvements, NPD reporting record levels for the gaming industry in our area.
“After Sony’s long expected price-cut, the PS3 finally surpassed the psychological barrier of 100,000 consoles sold in a month, but fell short of beating the Xbox 360 on its own turf.”
Xbox 360 beat PlayStation 3 in July with sales of 170,000 consoles, compared to Sony’s 159,000 but again, despite its scarcity, “it’s the Wii that beat’em all, with more than 425,000 units, surprisingly outpacing the DS, which sold ‘only’ 405K units,” says the report, adding:
Sony’s PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable both faired pretty well, with about 222,000 consoles sold, 214,000 respectively, while Nintendo’s old GameBoy Advance sold about 87,000 units.
Total industry sales were $925.5 million, up 37 percent year-over-year, and through July the industry has already totaled $7 billion in sales (tracking ahead of 2006 by 42.6 percent).
Hardware sales in particular saw much growth, rising 77.4 percent to $380.8 million. Of that total, console hardware dominated with $286 million in sales (a 140 percent jump), while portable hardware actually dipped one percent.
The software line-up was topped by EA’s NCAA Football, whose combined sales for the PS2, PS3 and Xbox 360 reached 789K copies, followed by Activision’s Guitar Hero games and Nintendo’s Wii Play, with 339K, 278K respectively.
Also See:
NPD Group – aming Industry Set to Surpass $18 Billion in 2007, August 24, 2007
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