Global Video & Computer Gaming - 2005 is a comprehensive market overview of the worldwide market for video game platforms: consoles and hand-held units, video and computer games - excluding the online gambling industry and wireless gaming. Now competing with the cinema and home movie DVD industry in terms of value, best selling games can outsell major music acts in both volume and value terms.
Whilst unit sales continue to rise in the gaming world, heavy discounting to counter increasing competition has led to a slowing of the growth rate to just half a percent to $11 bn US in 2004
Both handheld and online gaming are seen as key drivers in the forthcoming years, Analysts are predicting CAGR of over 30% for the next four to five years for this sector of the later.
Whilst the 15-25 year old male is still the dominant consumer of the gaming industry, software houses are bringing in more female programmers and designers to maximise returns on this increasingly valuable sector - in the US and South Korea, for example, females now comprise 39% and 49.5% of the gamers.
Rising costs of game development have caused significant restructuring of the industry - whilst several developers have been bankrupted, significant takeover activity is evident. Furthermore, some developers are switching from PC software to portable system software as a result of both consumer demand and significantly reduced game development cost and time ($200K-$400K over 6-9 months, versus $2M-$8M and 12 to 36 months).
Global Video & Computer Gaming - 2005 examines both the $11bn market that has elevated the three key manufacturing players, Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo to the ranks of the largest companies of the world, and allowed game publishers like Electronic Arts, Konami, Namco and Vivendi Universal to generate annual turnovers in excess of US $1bn a year. As competition has increased, volume sales have continued to rise, but heavy discounting has slowed growth to just half a percent in value terms between 2003 and 2004.
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