Before we ring in the new year of 2009, videogames are being predicted as the number one free time activity in entertainment, overtaking music and video combined.
Verdict Research predicts a rise of 42% in spending on videogames to an impressive GBP 4.64bn, whereas music and video will trail behind at GBP 4.46bn. Not everyone concurs.
”The music and video market is not just suffering from a slowing of growth but a massive transfer of spend to online,” said Verdict’s Malcolm Pinkerton.
The Entertainment Retailers Association doesn’t quite signup to the idea that videogames will overtake both video and music.
”There is no doubt that the games sector is having a fantastic year but these figures overstate that by including games hardware,” said ERA’s Steve Redmond.
”Our prediction is that games will overtake video by the end of this year but not music and video combined.”
Retailers like HMV and Zavvi are now altering their stores to include a greater number of videogames as they hope to compete with the likes of UK’s GAME and GameStation.
”They’re cutting back on space in music and re-allocating it to more lucrative areas such as MP3 players, books, clothing and video games,” said Verdict’s Pinkerton.
CD sales continue to fall to the power of MP3.Source: BBC
