Video game sales on track to set record in 2002
Tuesday November 19, 1:28 pm ET
biz.yahoo.com
LOS ANGELES, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Sales of video game hardware and software in the United States are on track to easily surpass 2001's record, with figures already up 25 percent year-over-year, according to data released on Tuesday.
Game hardware and software sales totaled more than $6 billion through the first 10 months of 2002, a 25 percent increase in dollar terms over the same period in 2001, according to NPDFunworld, a market research service for the games business that is a unit of the NPD Group.
Funworld said that with 50 percent or more of annual sales coming in the fourth calendar quarter, the industry could expect to generate about $4 billion more in revenue this year, bringing it past 2001's then-record $9.4 billion mark.
Sales of game consoles rose 29 percent on a dollar basis through the first 10 months of the year compared to the year-earlier period, Funworld said. Sales of console accessories like extra controllers were up 27 percent.
The company's survey found that for the 12-month period ending in October, 33 percent of all game purchases were for players ages 18 and older.
For that same period, NPD said, video games carrying a "Mature" rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board, accounted for 13 percent of all game sales, up from 6 percent in the 12 months' prior.
That growth has been driven in part by Take-Two Interactive Software Inc.'s (NasdaqNM:TTWO) criminal adventure game "Grand Theft Auto 3," which was the best-selling game of 2001 and is thus far the top seller of 2002.
The follow-on to that game, "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City," is already the No. 3 game for the year, even though it was not released until Oct. 29. The game sold more than 1.4 million units in its first five days of release. |
