Dollar bills, yall: Video games top $22 billion in 2008
- January 29, 2009 08:49 AM PST
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The Entertainment Software Association, which makes money collecting membership fees from video game companies, is pleased to announce that 2008 was the industry's biggest year ever.
Photo: Business 2.0
WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 (Press Release) -- Overall computer and video game industry hardware, software and peripheral sales climbed to $22 billion in 2008, with entertainment software sales comprising $11.7 billion of that total figure -- a 22.9% jump over the previous year -- the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) announced today. The industry set the new record, calculated by market-research firm NPD Group, on the strength of a December sales month in which industry revenue ($5.3 billion) topped $5 billion for the first time in any single month. By comparison, as recently as 1997, the industry generated $5.1 billion over the entire year.
"Even in difficult economic times, the video game industry continues to support our country's local, state and national economies with record-breaking sales figures and rapid technological innovation," said Michael D. Gallagher, president and CEO of the ESA, the trade association representing U.S. computer and video game publishers. "Our industry's exceptional creators, artists, and storytellers, coupled with a commitment to providing unparalleled entertainment, have fueled high-octane growth, turning video games into the most sought-after medium on the market today."
"The $11.7 billion in software sales generated in 2008 is more than total industry revenues were in 2005, but even with the strong market growth of the gaming industry over the past few years, what we are seeing is an accumulation of more sales by a select group of titles," said Anita Frazier, industry analyst, The NPD Group. "In 2005, when the current console generation began to be introduced, the top 20 games of the year accounted for 9 percent of total unit sales. Today, the top 20 account for 15 percent of total unit sales."
The NPD Group revealed that, in 2008, total U.S. video game console software sales reached $8.9 billion (189.0 million units), PC game sales hit $701.4 million (29.1 million units), and portable software topped last year's record sales with $2.1 billion (79.5 million units) in revenue. Overall, retailers sold approximately 297.6 million computer and video games last year.
In 2008, family-friendly video games once again dominated the market, with games that the Entertainment Software Rating Board rated "Everyone 10+" and lower accounting for over half of all sales.(1) Games rated "T" for "Teen," meanwhile, accounted for 26.7 percent of all sales, while "Mature (M)" games made up only 15.9 percent of the market. Underscoring the trend, the "Family Entertainment" video game category again finished the year as the most popular game genre, with more than 19 percent of all sales. The best-selling game was Wii Play.
See also:
GamePro's best and worst of 2008
The Best Games of 2008 You Never Played
The 17 WORST Games of 2008
More Top GamePro Stories
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- Jan 29 2009 at 09:04:34:AM PST
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Cool, Gamers should get some of that back,... you know like Income tax Refunds
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Don't count on it. Obama will make sure that you will pay more taxes. In his eyes if your rich enough to buy games your rich enough to pay taxes.
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orko wrote:
Don't count on it. Obama will make sure that you will pay more taxes. In his eyes if your rich enough to buy games your rich enough to pay taxes.
Blah blah blah. Save your politics for another site.
This is great news, but I'm sad to hear of all the lay-offs and shut downs.
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it doesn't surprise me that the video game industry is making insane amounts of money and kicking the sh*t out of the movie industry at both theaters and retail. Considering the average video game costs between $40-60 and you can get days and even weeks of use and entertainment out of it, games are a great value. It costs that much just for 2 people to go to the movies, and f*cking Blu-ray movies cost $30-40 for 2 hours of entertainment.
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duffmanth wrote:
it doesn't surprise me that the video game industry is making insane amounts of money and kicking the sh*t out of the movie industry at both theaters and retail. Considering the average video game costs between $40-60 and you can get days and even weeks of use and entertainment out of it, games are a great value. It costs that much just for 2 people to go to the movies, and f*cking Blu-ray movies cost $30-40 for 2 hours of entertainment.I know exactly what you mean. I love video-games but won't buy one unless I know it could pretty much have unlimited replay value (such as sports games or REALLY long adventure games like Fallout, Oblivion, or WoW.)
I work at a movie theater and it's amazing how much some of these people shell out to go. Movie tickets are $6-10 on a given day (depending on the time and what type of person is going). Not to mention that there is still concession prices. A large popcorn and soda at the theater I work at is $11. Luckily I get in for free from working, so I can pretty much see any movie I want. Plus, a good thing to do is check with your local theater about their policy about bringing your own food in. My theater lets people do that, but most people don't know they can do that to begin with.
As for DVDs/Blu-ray- I only buy DVD's I know I am going to watch more than once such as Dark Knight or Scarface, but for movies I know I'm just going to watch once, I just watch them online at websites like http://watch-movies.net/
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Ha, Wii Play? That is amongst the gayest games of all time! Nintendo hates gaming. They promote gay-ming
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"My Horse and Me," now on Nintendo Wii, with hidden, bonus bestiality content!
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tparsons5150 wrote:
Cool, Gamers should get some of that back,... you know like Income tax Refunds
Agreed. We work hard for our games. We deserve a slice of the pie for ensuring that the video game industry doesn't crash again like during that whole ET/Atari fiasco.
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So want bush back to put us into more of a history RECORD breaking Trillion dollar debt that he left us with. Genius idea. Dont think so stop watching FOX.
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Masterafa wrote:
So want bush back to put us into more of a history RECORD breaking Trillion dollar debt that he left us with. Genius idea. Dont think so stop watching FOX.
First of all I can't stand Bush. Second of all Democrats have been in control for the last two years and the democrats are the ones who caused the house crises that started the recession. Third of all I just wish Goverment in general Democrats or Republicans whould stay away from the economy instead of makeing it worse. If they screwed up there budget and screwed our social security then how in the heck do they think they can fix the economy. I can go on and on but as someone already pointed out this isn't the place for this type of comment.
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