UK video game industry at an all-time high
The year 2000 was a fantastic one for the sales of video games.
ELSPA (The European Leisure Software Publishers Association) and ChartTrack have just released figures, and the retrospective view is fantastic. For the first time in recorded history, software sales reached 39.5 million units sold in one year. This figure is up a stunning 16 percent on the 1999 total.
The value of those software sales tops 934 million pounds of revenue, an increase of just 2 percent over the last year. You might be thinking sales are up 16 percent and the value of those sales is only up 2 percent, why is that? The reason for this is that the price of video games is steadily falling. Retailers are giving the customers a good deal and this is being reflected in the total sales. Additionally, many quality titles are making their way into the budget charts.
The average price of a PC CD-ROM in 1999 was £24, last year it dropped to just £20. A similar situation happened with PlayStation software but to a much greater extent. The average price of PlayStation software dropped by over £10.
The Game Boy showed it still has plenty of life left in it with more than 2.5 million software sales under its belt. The value of the sales came to more than £50 million, not bad for a ten year old 8-bit handheld. The Pokemon franchise was mainly responsible for this success.
Michael Rawlinson, the general manager had these comments:
"The ChartTrack figures confirm the year-on-year growth of the leisure software market in this country, confounding some City analysts who forecast that year 2000 would see a downturn in business as consumers awaited the PS2. The peaks and troughs that used to be associated with the introduction of new games hardware are well and truly behind us. This year should be another great one as we see sales of PS2 hardware and software really take off and the entry of Microsoft’s Xbox into the lucrative console market
Who knows what the Year 2001 will hold for the industry, with the arrival of the
Xbox continued success we would imagine.
The value of those software sales tops 934 million pounds of revenue, an increase of just 2 percent over the last year. You might be thinking sales are up 16 percent and the value of those sales is only up 2 percent, why is that? The reason for this is that the price of video games is steadily falling. Retailers are giving the customers a good deal and this is being reflected in the total sales. Additionally, many quality titles are making their way into the budget charts.
The average price of a PC CD-ROM in 1999 was £24, last year it dropped to just £20. A similar situation happened with PlayStation software but to a much greater extent. The average price of PlayStation software dropped by over £10.
The Game Boy showed it still has plenty of life left in it with more than 2.5 million software sales under its belt. The value of the sales came to more than £50 million, not bad for a ten year old 8-bit handheld. The Pokemon franchise was mainly responsible for this success.
Michael Rawlinson, the general manager had these comments:
"The ChartTrack figures confirm the year-on-year growth of the leisure software market in this country, confounding some City analysts who forecast that year 2000 would see a downturn in business as consumers awaited the PS2. The peaks and troughs that used to be associated with the introduction of new games hardware are well and truly behind us. This year should be another great one as we see sales of PS2 hardware and software really take off and the entry of Microsoft’s Xbox into the lucrative console market
Who knows what the Year 2001 will hold for the industry, with the arrival of the
Xbox continued success we would imagine.
Companies:
ELSPA
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