Despite an industry increasingly stressful on the survival of studios, analysis company DFC Intelligence predicts the game industry will grow next year, reaping profits of USD 57 billion, and there are no signs of slowing down:
"Consumer spending on software is at record levels and the game business seems to actually benefit from a recession because games are a relatively cheap form of home entertainment," says DFC analyst David Cole.
11 countries currently have annual video game revenue topping 1 billion. And to think the video game industry was once on the verge of total collapse!
The company predicts the Wii will be the best selling console of this generation overall:
"The Wii does not appear to be a fad and it has the chance to be one of the best selling systems of all-time," says Cole.
Jeremy Miller, another analyst there says in spite of this, many third-party publishers will have greater success on the Xbox 360 and PS3, no matter what happens with Nintendo. I'm presuming with this he's referring to the Wii's biggest selling titles being first and second party (as of June 21, Wii Fit, Wii Play, Wii Sports and Mario Kart Wii are the biggest selling titles for any system worldwide; the only title superseding them is Metal Gear Solid 4).
According to their estimates, around 2012 the Xbox 360 should have a nice spot near the top in the US and UK. Moreover, good news is in store for Sony (finally): the PS3 will equal the Wii's annual software sales at this point. Although unfortunately for them, a separate analyst predicted awhile back new consoles will arrive as early as 2010. Who's betting on who?
So that's all well and good, but here's an especially interesting piece of news: the biggest gaming platform last year was the PC. Why? Online revenue alone exceeded 7 billion USD in 2007. As well, DFC predicts total PC gaming revenue to top 19 billion by 2013. It isn't clear whether the 2007 statistic incorporates sales of PC games online through services like Steam, or whether this is just subscription fees through titles like WoW, but either way, that's something else. Here's hoping they take some of that money and help liven up the non-MMO side of PC gaming, hey?
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