Videogames Bring in More Revenue than DVDs

Media Control GfK International, a market research firm, has released data suggesting that the revenue derived from the sales of videogames exceeded the revenue obtained from the sales of movies on DVD and Blu-ray discs during the course of 2008.

It seems that the company is tracking something it calls “packaged media commodities,” products that generated more than 61 billion dollars during the last year. DVD and Blu-ray discs accounted for 47% of that staggering sum, while videogames accounted for 53% of the value mentioned above. Media Control GfK International is saying that, during the current year, it expects the share of videogames to grow to about 57%.

Overall sales of videogames as packaged media commodities have increased last year by 20%, with the value being 32 billion dollars, while the market for DVD and Blu-ray went down by about 6%. The media research company is saying that the growing market for the Nintendo Wii gaming console accounts for most of the increase in the videogames department, while the transition, at times uneasy, from DVD to Blu-ray limited the strength of the movie sales. Still, Media Control estimated that the games sector would rise by 22%, which means that the world wide economic crisis has affected the industry.

It seems that, slowly but clearly, the videogames industry is turning into the most important element in the so called “entertainment industry.” The music industry is getting hammered by free music distributed over the Internet and falling CD sales, with games like Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour actually pushing music titles. Blu-ray's and DVDs are selling less than packaged games and the next target to beat seems to be the revenue produced by the theatrical release of movies (which will probably be tough to meet).