Malcolm Pinkerton of Verdict Research has published a study on the retail industry, predicting that the video games market would grow by 1.37 billion pounds to reach 4.64 billion pounds in 2008. The 42 percent growth in video games market will make it the top entertainment form in UK, outstripping music and video sales.  Music and video sales will remain stagnate at 4.46 billion pounds in 2008.
“The music and video market is not just suffering from a slowing of growth but a massive transfer of spend to online,” said Malcolm Pinkerton. “So in actual fact, the sales via high street shops are being hit a lot harder than the overall growth figures would suggest.”
The Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) believe that games sector had enjoyed an incredible year, but the report is misleading as it includes hardware and console sales along with video game software sales. So to compare you will have to add DVD player, CD Player and MP3 player sales with music and video content sales.
ERA spokesman Steve Redmond says “with the availability of downloads, people can cherry pick from albums and maybe they are only buying one or two tracks”. The gaming industry is becoming stronger, but still, it is no match to overall music and movie industry.
[Via Reuters]