by David Paul

Compared to the prior year, 2008 was a big step forward in many sectors even while the global economic outlook proved extremely gloomy. Video games provide a longer entertainment experience for a similar investment meaning that other forms of entertainment are becoming too expensive for many people.

Australia The Australian market bucked the trend of a lot of other areas of the world. PC gaming grew 4.2% with December really making the year with $21.2 million in sales. Overall the industry grew a whopping 47.8 percent in 2008 and reached $1.96B Australian dollars. Over $1B of that was spent on software, a 48.5% increase in sales. Unit sales increased in software by 42.1% while hardware saw a 36.6% rise. Nintendo was the big winner in the country with Wii Fit being the best selling software in the country and Nintendo platforms accounted for over 66% of all hardware sales in the market in 2008. In fact the top 4 titles for 2008 were Nintendo Wii titles (Wii Fit, Wii Play w/Remote, Mario Kart w/Wheel, Mario & Sonic at the Olympics).

PC Gaming Worldwide The PC Gaming Alliance put out their report on the PC gaming industry for 2008 just in March. Their findings state that the PC gaming platform is alive and well and totals about $11 Billion US in worldwide revenue, more than any single platform from Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo. It's an emerging platform of choice in Asia and Eastern Europe and took in a lion's share of over $6B in North America and Europe. Broadband penetration helped to fuel online gaming as well as digital distribution systems like Steam, GamersGate, and more. Massive Multiplayer Online Games were leading the charge in revenue and profits with some games hauling in more than $100M per year while World of Warcraft is generating around $1B annually in revenue. Casual Gaming also took a lead in the PC Gaming realm and many portals are now generating well over $100 Million in annual revenue as well.

Japan Goes Under While they're not exactly sliding into the ocean game sales weren't all that spectacular in the country last year. Playstation 2 saw a massive drop off of 46% and even Nintendo's DS Touch Generation software took a hit. Meanwhile the newer consoles - Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii ? saw some promising growth and make 2009 look like a good year.

An 11 percent jump across the major markets of Europe, the US and Japan means that around 410 million units were sold for the year. While the US and UK led the charge and are now suffering in bad economies they were more than enough to pick up what Japan missed. Indicators and pundits believe that the growth will continue in 2009.

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