UK game sales surpassing music, possibly movies

by Alexander Sliwinski { Nov 5th 2008 at 12:58PM }

A report by Verdict Research (via BBC) finds that UK game sales will surpass both music and video in 2008. Video game sales have been on a rampage in the region, with a report earlier this year by the Entertainment Retailers' Association (ERA) stating it had surpassed music sales. The Verdict report predicts a 42% growth in game sales this year to £4.64 billion, with sales of music and video combined at around £4.46 billion.

The ERA counters that the Verdict report is a bit misleading because it includes hardware sales. The organization is confident that game software sales of £1.7 billion will beat out music's (continually dropping sales of) £1.4 billion, but that video revenue will still be about £2.2 billion.

Tags: bbc, dvd, movies, music, sales, uk, video

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Haggard @ Nov 5th 2008 1:04PM

Wonder if this includes online shopping too? I (and others I know) buy all our games from amazon.co.uk and play.com because in shops you pay about £5 more (and have to get off your ass for that privilege)

Poisoned Al @ Nov 5th 2008 1:28PM

I was wondering that. You have to factor in that most new music is shit, and all the good stuff you can get a five finger discount for, so the numbers sound right.

Haggard @ Nov 5th 2008 1:40PM

On the other hand, the UK's teenagers are all cretins with disposable income and whom are into every new indie band that comes along.

Stupidiot @ Nov 5th 2008 7:18PM

Hey, hey... I may be a teenage cretin, but I have taste in music, damnit!
Disposable income has been pretty scarce in the past few months also :3

Ethan @ Nov 5th 2008 1:06PM

Could it be because they're overpriced? (I mean, moreso than music and films, they are too)

Tiptup300 @ Nov 5th 2008 1:58PM

It's harder to make a great game then a great movie, your argument is invalid.

Ethan @ Nov 5th 2008 3:17PM

I'd say it's harder to make a game break even, which is why the prices are double of a film. The publishers don't seem to have much influence in the stores, so if you're lucky your product is only on the shelves for 3 months whether it's crap or good. Oh and used games sell tons, which I think shows that quite a lot of people think they're overpriced.

It doesn't cost more to make a AAA title than a blockbuster film, the staggering GTAIV did not break any media records, and at the low end Braid was $180k (although the download sector is more reasonably priced) to develop, films only approach that if somebody along the line doesn't get paid.

DigDug @ Nov 5th 2008 1:18PM

[I have been repeatedly banned for trolling, but seem unable to take the hint.]

Jakka @ Nov 5th 2008 1:24PM

1. The link is actually some page on WiiMusic.It has nothing to do with the Game Sales. You know we're not THAT RETARDED to fall for that old trick of "Here's a bunch of stuff in a foreign language, it proves my point"

2. 25000+6800+6300= 38200 > 36000

3.Die in a fire.

Emophia @ Nov 5th 2008 1:26PM

I can;t find those numbers on the source...

United States of Generica @ Nov 5th 2008 1:26PM

OMFGZ teh bias!

What bias? For what rational reason would Joystiq be baised to one platform other another?

Jakka @ Nov 5th 2008 1:26PM

To prove my point, here's the transaltion of that page

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.famitsu.com%2Fgame%2Frank%2Fsokuho%2F1219214_1796.html&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=ja&tl=en

Learn to troll properly or GTFO.

Emophia @ Nov 5th 2008 1:28PM

There;s also no reason the PS3 would sell that much if not even one PS3 game was on the top ten.

Lars @ Nov 5th 2008 1:36PM

In my personal life, buying games surpassed music and movies (combined!) a long time ago.

For one thing, there's just not that many good movies coming out. And music is just too expensive so I don't buy it as much as I'd like.

Ryan LN @ Nov 5th 2008 2:30PM

Perhaps I'm missing something here,but aren't we comparing apples to oranges to bananas? If you sell 100 million units of product A at $12 bucks a piece but then sell 25 million units of product B at $49-$59 a piece, then it stands to reason that you'd see a disparity. What I'd be interested in is a units sold comparison: I'm sure than the actual number of CD's and DVD's greatly outnumber the real number of games sold. Additionally, I'd also like to know which are more *profitable*. What I haven't figured out is WHY I need to/want to know either one of these things. Best I can figure out is that it's probably because I'm a closet nerd. Now that I've come out, I suppose it means I'm just a nerd.