Australians unleash $1.3 billion on games

Mike Bantick
Wednesday, 23 January 2008 03:41

Your IT - Entertainment

The gaming industry continues to expand in the land down under. Back in July 2007 the interactive gaming industry in Australia first broke through the $1 billion dollar barrier for the financial year.  But statistics released by the market research group Gfk show that even this was not the peak of the industry.

Gaming console and software sales raked in $1.3 billion during the calendar 2007 year, an increase of 43.6 percent over 2006.

With a population of just on 22 million opposing thumb equipped people, it is unsurprising that Australians also purchased 15.4 million games in 2007.

Needless to say, given the rise in sales growth from 2005 to 2006 was a comparatively measly 7 percent, the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia is pretty happy with 2007. 

CEO Ron Curry put the rise in perspective;"Last year, Australians welcomed the arrival of the PS3 (Playstation 3) and marked a full year since the release of the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii," he said.
"The launch of highly anticipated next generation gaming drove console sales to almost $500 million, nearly double the $270 million sold in 2006."

Mr Curry touched on the maturing of the average Australian gamer,  with 8 percent of gamers over the age of sixty, as partly responsible for the industries expansion;” The gaming industry is no longer a niche market appealing only to traditional gamers," he said.

"It is interesting to note that as more Australians embrace the most advanced gaming innovations and purchase the latest games, the average age of gamers has risen to 28 years old."

King of the hardware pie slice, as it is around the world, is the Nintendo DS, the popular hand-held gaming device was responsible for more than 2.3 million units of software sales.

Rivals, Sony and Microsoft had a good 2007 as well; 175,000 PlayStation branded units and more then 300,000 Xbox 360’s made their way into Australian homes.

The top selling non-hand-held console in Australia however was not clear cut, with the expected winner, the Nintendo Wii, going neck to neck with the venerable Sony PlayStation 2.