Sales of video games and consoles in the UK reached an "all time
high", with the total value reaching just over £2 billion, an
increase of 8% on 2001, according to the country's leisure software
industry.
In a report released yesterday, The Entertainment & Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) found that the biggest growth area in 2002 was the sales of consoles, boosted by the launch of Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's GameCube. Console software sales increased by 19% on 2001 sales to £849 million, while sales of PC software were down by 5% at £327 million.
The UK's market for games and consoles is the third largest in the world, after the US and Japan, and the ELSPA says that UK consumers now spend more on leisure software than on cinema visits or renting videos. Also, according to the ELSPA, the value of UK exports of leisure software products exceeds that of both British film and TV.
According to UK sales figures from ELSPA and ChartTrack Retail Panel, Sony's PlayStation 1 hardware sales in 2002 were valued at £16 million, PlayStation 2 hardware at £343 million (compared to £45 million and £403 million respectively in 2001). Hardware sales of Microsoft's Xbox, launched in 2002, were valued at £108 million and sales of Nintendo's GameCube at £53 million.
