The industry has been pretty vocal over the last few years about how the gaming economy is slowing down and it only takes a cursory glance at the bankrupt studios and the number of gaming media closures over the last few years to see that they aren’t just making this up.
But last year saw the release of two new consoles and there was a lot of hope that this would signal a turn around for the industry and that we could be heading back to better days. Well in the UK at least this seems to be proving to be correct with the gaming industry in the UK growing by a solid 20% over the past financial year.
Locally our industry is still struggling but the upcoming release of the Xbox One and the expected increase in PS4 games after June are expected to help us locally as well.
But let’s take a look at how that extra 20% has helped the UK industry and where the GBP3.48B pounds gets spent.
As you can see the boxed retail versions of games is still the largest part of the industry but it is still dropping and is now virtually equal to the digital sales which increased by 25% over the last year. The 78 million in used sales does make us question how bad that section is for the industry but what really depresses me to be honest is the mobile gaming section.
That has increased 83% year on year and is now worth a whopping GBP430 million alone. Surprisingly the video game toy market is only valued at GBP80 million, I expected that to be much higher but maybe they don’t count Skylanders and Disney Infinity as toys?
I would hesitate to say our local breakdown is probably close but the retail box set side is likely still quite a bit larger than digital thanks to our slow Internet. I do expect this to change. My favourite breakdown however is the following visualisation of how every 10 pounds spent in gaming is broken down.
The only thing we are missing is how much of that Boxed+Digital sales are related to consoles compared to PC’s.
Last Updated: May 30, 2014
Admiral Chief Orca
May 30, 2014 at 14:32
Long live….gaming!
RinceofFuturePast
May 30, 2014 at 14:46
Kapla!
Admiral Chief Orca
May 30, 2014 at 14:34
Yeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssss
http://www.infiniteunknown.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/queen_elizabeth_ii.jpg
Kromas
May 30, 2014 at 14:53
She looks like she just beat someone in Dota. 🙂
Admiral Chief Orca
May 30, 2014 at 14:58
Not beat, OWNED
Kromas
May 30, 2014 at 14:59
Sorry my bad. Long day at work so I am tired. 🙂
Also PWNED not OWNED. Let us get the real l33tsp3@k lingo going. 😛
Alex Hicks
May 30, 2014 at 15:01
PWNT?
Kromas
May 30, 2014 at 15:01
Now that is too lazy.
Alex Hicks
May 30, 2014 at 15:02
It’s also what got sent my direction every couple of minutes when I used to play CoD. Generally followed by some obscenity …
Kromas
May 30, 2014 at 15:07
CoD is the crux of the problem there. 😛
Alex Hicks
May 30, 2014 at 15:10
A good point. I’m just as bad at Battlefield as I was at CoD; but I’ve only had one negative thing said to me; and that was a polite enquiry as to if I wouldn’t mind giving up the tank driving controls to someone who actually could make it go where he wanted to …
Kromas
May 30, 2014 at 15:13
Yeah I suck relatively hard with vehicles in BF4 cause I fly in DayZ and drive in Saint’s Row.
WufanGohan
June 5, 2014 at 03:13
Pwn, leet, these are embarrassing attempts at literacy that we all hope to move on and put behind us. For good.
Hammersteyn
May 30, 2014 at 15:00
I would imagine monarchs would have the same grin at be-headings
RinceofFuturePast
May 30, 2014 at 15:05
I read that as Diana at first 0-O
Jim Lenoir (Banana Jim)
May 30, 2014 at 14:44
Any South African industry types here? What are the numbers for Mamma South Africa?
Kromas
May 30, 2014 at 15:01
I sincerely hope you are talking gaming industry cause I am part of the South African Civil engineering industry so I can only guess that PC game sales beat out all the consoles. 😛
oVgeeeeee Comet Drop
May 30, 2014 at 15:48
Hell, if its anything near the amount of people who submit their SARS then don’t bother.
Around 4 million people are keeping this country afloat. 3 million are on-line.
RinceofFuturePast
May 30, 2014 at 14:46
Wowza, YEAH! Gaming industry sick you say? Yeah, sick of mobile phone gaming?! No, sadly not ;(
Hammersteyn
May 30, 2014 at 14:52
Music and film down 4%, you know why?
Netflix
oVgeeeeee Comet Drop
May 30, 2014 at 15:23
Also, modern music and film suck :p
oVgeeeeee Comet Drop
May 30, 2014 at 15:16
and they still call it the 720 😛
40 SQUID? How much are we being wallet raped in South Africa?
Ryanza
May 30, 2014 at 16:26
By those numbers you can clearly see that second hands games are not killing the gaming industry. So why do we have DRM, it’s not because of pirates that’s clear enough.
Do not support DRM.
WufanGohan
June 5, 2014 at 03:11
Even though it is the limited UK but the decline if you look beyond that, is a global phenomenon.
Mobile gaming, however controversial (they are mostly for people who can’t play mainstream games yet their critics have no skill in the latter too) is poised to be a new trend. Um those competitions for the notorious first person shooters and fighting games that the laughable role-playing-game-adhering mainstream with low ability ignore are also not looking up nowadays. Ironic when they are trying in bad taste to make it look like sports. Golf is sports for you can’t always use your caddy to drive you around in your buggy, and the loser audience on the sides like you follow the ball like they follow the white rabbit, with expensive corporate sponsorship, media coverage and incredible prizes and trophies, but these fattening activities behind the screen aren’t.
Well, as for failed studios in the industry the founders and collaborators have got to keep finding what is suitable for them and what is sustainable in the long run.