According to a study carried out by Verdict Research, video game sales are set to exceed that of music and video in the UK.
The research firm has predicted that, despite the current economic problems, revenue from sales of video games will rise 42% to £4.64 billion in 2008, higher than the combined sales revenue of music and video which has risen just 0.4% to £4.46 billion.
The study shows that the video games market has more than doubled since 2003, thanks to the popularity of titles such as Grand Theft Auto IV, Fallout 3 and FIFA 08, as well as the Nintendo Wii"s success amongst casual gamers.
The research also states that high street sales of CDs and DVDs are falling, with more consumers purchasing them online. High street retailers such as HMV and Zavvi are having to adapt to this shift in consumer spending, according to Malcolm Pinkerton of Verdict Research, "They"re cutting back on space in music and re-allocating it to more lucrative areas such as MP3 players, books, clothing and video games".
Steve Redmond of the Entertainment Retailers Association begged to differ, pointing out that the study was flawed by including games hardware in the revenues and said that the ERA predictions showed something different. "Our prediction is that games will overtake video by the end of this year, but not music and video combined."