CONSOLE POWER DRIVES LEISURE SOFTWARE MARKET

The latest edition of The European Leisure Software Publishers Association’s (ELSPA’s) annual report on the interactive leisure software market, which is published today, shows a global market continuing to grow at a faster rate than any other form of entertainment media and in defiance of previous cyclical trends.

The report, which is produced for ELSPA by leading media analysts, Screen Digest, reveals that over the five year period between 1996 and 2000, the UK leisure software market grew by a staggering 111% (an average of 22% per year). By comparison, video retail spending grew by 37% over the same period (7% per year) cinema ticket spending by 36% (7% per year) and video rental and music spending by 16% (3% per year). Over the next five-year period, ELSPA and Screen Digest forecast an average annual market growth rate of around 5% per year.

In volume terms nearly 40 million units of leisure software were sold to British consumers last year, just over 24 million units of which were for consoles and hand-held devices, while around 15 million were for PCs. The value of these software sales (£934.4 million) combined with gaming hardware (excluding PCs) brings the total value of sales last year to £1.37 billion. With PlayStation 2 continuing to boost software sales and the UK launch of the new Gameboy Advance last week, the market in 2001 is forecast to reach an all time high of £1.56 billion this year.



THE UK IS PLAYING ON A WORLD STAGE

The global market for leisure software was worth $17.7 billion in 2000 with Europe, at $5.8n billion, currently the second largest market after the US which is worth $6.3 billion, whilst the Japanese market is worth $3.4 billion. However, from 2002 onwards, the report predicts that the European market will overtake the US to become the world’s most valuable sales patch for leisure software.

Within Europe, the UK market for leisure software is the largest. In terms of console software, the UK market is almost twice the size of the next largest console market – France – and about the same size as the French and German console markets combined.

And the UK is not just home to scores of avid computer games consumers but also to some of the most prolific, creative and commercially successful producers of leisure software in the world. British originated games dominate the home market with 35% of all titles sold in the UK last year. In comparison, Japanese games accounted for 31% of the UK market while US titles had a 25% share. But the success of British-developed games is not just confined to home soil: one third of all PlayStation titles sold in Europe originate in the UK, equal to the market share of US titles and well ahead of Japanese titles. In the US console market, British titles achieved a very credible 11% of the market, well ahead of any other European sector.

The report reveals that British-developed games generated an estimated £1.1 billion in retail sales outside the UK last year, which channeled £488 million into the UK economy, up 7.5% from 1997. In comparison, the value of imports of leisure software into the UK was £302 million last year, resulting in a positive balance of trade of £186 million. To put this into context, in 1999 (the most recent year for which figures are available) the British film and TV industries recorded a net trade deficit of £11 million.