For the first time since cavemen and dinosaurs bought that massive pile of time travelling Mass Effect 3 copies (with an odd ‘Amazon’ sticker on them) billions of years ago, sales of computer games have passed video in the UK.
I like that news, and I like writing ‘computer games’. It’s a nice feeling.
[drop2]The ERA (Entertainment Retailers Association) claims that sales of games in 2011 amounted to £1.93bn, with video formats down at £1.80bn and music drifting along with just £1.07bn.This makes the gaming industry the UK’s biggest entertainment sector. Tell that to a kid of the 80’s playing Jet Set Willy on his own (as you do) and his brains would be all over his tiny CRT screen. Back then, if you played games, you were normally considered a geek.
“This is a dramatic time for the entertainment market,” said Kim Bayley, director general of the ERA.
“It is an historic development for the games sector to have overtaken video last year. Video has long been the biggest entertainment sector. Sales so far this year, however, suggest video is not going down without a fight.”
It’s not all good news, though, in the first three months of 2012 sales of video were twice that of games. Presumably because there wasn’t that much worth buying, although I’d have thought the PS Vita would have figured into that somewhere.
Source: BBC.
3shirts
This is a very useful stat to throw out when people scoff about our hobby (which it amazes me that people do).
Foxhound_Solid
Biggest entertainment medium on the planet gaming now…
Jambo
Quite a strange world where you have computer games overtaking video on the same week that GAME go into administration.
nofi
well, these are 2011’s figures. as the piece says, in 2012 it’s a different story.
Jambo
Oh yeah of course I worded that badly, should have said announced.
However it’s not like the trouble GAME is in is all from this year.
As you say though 2012 is entirely different, interesting to see how the Vita and WiiU fare once they are established.
cam the man
Surprised it’s taken this long.
gazzagb
Hardly surprising considering how expensive gaming is. Compare an average £35 game to a £15 DVD/Blu-Ray and it’s not hard to see why video game sales totals are bigger.
aerobes
That was what I thought too.
bigmac175
I used to feel special as a gamer but mow everyone is, if ask people in the street, i feel most would say they own at least 1 console. Its became the norm for most people. And i must say computer games cost more than that of videos. Games cost around the £30 mark and DVDs being £6 and Blu-ray being £12, its quite obvious that games would surpass that eventually.
Dazbobaby
hey I am that geek from the 80’s.
manic miner, elite, chuckle egg, boulder dash, only thing is I never grew up… just taller.
Forrest_01
You’re so lucky… I’m still the size i was when i was 15.
hunterstryfe
Same here: Thundercats, Transformers, Daley Thompson, Ghostbusters, Jet Set Willy, CHUCKY egg, Dizzy
minerwilly
Me too ! great days . I think us guys and girls appreciate the new games more than anyone because we where there at the beginning . If your first console was a PS1 or N64 i dont see how they can have same excitement for the developments in tech that we do.
I remember just looking at loading screens in the old days on stuff like 3d Deathchase and thinking wouldnt it be amazing if the graphics looked like that , well theyve been far far surpassed .
Sad Panda
I would have thought Call Of Duty was a large proportion of those sales. Games will catch up again when Cack Ops 2 comes out.
Bladesteel
Its bigger than movies, yet Game didn’t survive even with the higher margins on used games?
How does this fit with the publishers claims that they are losing that much on used games?
Kevatron400
Heehee, “computer games” – I remember calling them that. Cute.