There was a report that came out recently that talked about the fact that despite this never-ending news about the financial market and the economy being awful, mortgage rates, gas prices, wheat, everything, the videogame industry has seen an increase in sales.
A surprising fact considering that in most cases when money is tight the "luxuries" are the first things get dropped from the personal budget. But numbers don't lie.The NPD Group, a market research company that reports on all sorts of consumer trends dropped some surprising numbers recently showing the videogame industry having a 34 percent increase in retail sales of all things gaming (software, hardware, accessories, doohickeys) clocking in at a whopping $1.34 -billion -- insert wacky cartoon noise of surprise here.
This increase in sales is up 12 percent from 2007 which by itself was an extraordinary year for the business not just in sales but in quality titles as well. Call of Duty 4 was a top seller after its release and last month apparently moved almost 300,000 units. At $60 a pop that's a lot of money. That's just one game out of several that were top sellers last month alone. Add to that are the rock steady sales of the Nintendo's DS, a spike in sales of the PS3 now that Blu-ray is the official victor in the HD war and the third place but still profitable Xbox 360 and you can easily see how you could get into the billions.
Fresh on the heels of this news is the latest report showing that videogame retailer GameStop made more than $7 billion in 2007. The Texas-based retailer which snapped up retailer EB Games two years ago closed out it's fiscal '07 year in February with astronomical figures and 586 stores opened across the globe as well.
Is the videogame industry "recession proof?" That remains to be seen but with numbers this high early in the year and no indication that the industry is slowing down at the end of the first quarter, most experts foresee 2008 as another banner year for the business of videogames.
A surprising fact considering that in most cases when money is tight the "luxuries" are the first things get dropped from the personal budget. But numbers don't lie.The NPD Group, a market research company that reports on all sorts of consumer trends dropped some surprising numbers recently showing the videogame industry having a 34 percent increase in retail sales of all things gaming (software, hardware, accessories, doohickeys) clocking in at a whopping $1.34 -billion -- insert wacky cartoon noise of surprise here.
This increase in sales is up 12 percent from 2007 which by itself was an extraordinary year for the business not just in sales but in quality titles as well. Call of Duty 4 was a top seller after its release and last month apparently moved almost 300,000 units. At $60 a pop that's a lot of money. That's just one game out of several that were top sellers last month alone. Add to that are the rock steady sales of the Nintendo's DS, a spike in sales of the PS3 now that Blu-ray is the official victor in the HD war and the third place but still profitable Xbox 360 and you can easily see how you could get into the billions.
Fresh on the heels of this news is the latest report showing that videogame retailer GameStop made more than $7 billion in 2007. The Texas-based retailer which snapped up retailer EB Games two years ago closed out it's fiscal '07 year in February with astronomical figures and 586 stores opened across the globe as well.
Is the videogame industry "recession proof?" That remains to be seen but with numbers this high early in the year and no indication that the industry is slowing down at the end of the first quarter, most experts foresee 2008 as another banner year for the business of videogames.
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