GAMES SALES CONTINUE ON THE UP

Thursday 10th January/...The UK interactive entertainment software market hit a new all time high in 2007, according to ELSPA (Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association) as it reveals annual performance figures today, courtesy of Chart-Track.

2007 was an unprecedented year for the industry with a staggering growth in sales, the industry saw a 16% increase on units sold from the previous year taking the total to a whopping 75.9 million units sold. These record sales of interactive entertainment software across all formats totalled £1.72 billion, an increase of over 26% per cent over 2006's record figures.

Paul Jackson, Director General of ELSPA, said: " We are thrilled to see the industry growing and software sales continuing to rise. This is a real testament to the industry, the creativity and the talent we have in the UK. There is, however, a chance to forget many of the problems the UK development sector faces with the pressure from the threat of international competition. We need to ensure that the UK creativity is able to continue to flourish and feed this demand, these figures should act as a reminder to us of the scale of our amazing industry and how we need to continue to work towards a healthier situation for one of the UK most lucrative creative industries."

2007 was the biggest year ever for handheld systems with the Nintendo DS software actually ranked at No1 in terms of units sold and Sony's PSP ranked at No5 in units and No6 by value. The entire console hand-held sector broke previous records and claimed nearly a third of the entire software units market, up 45% and just over one-quarter of the entire software market by value, up by 28%.

The biggest static console format in terms of value generation was Microsoft's Xbox 360, followed by Sony's PS2 (down from top spot in 2006), followed by Nintendo's Wii and Sony's PS3. However, in terms of units sold the order changes to PS2 (but No2 overall behind DS, the first time it has not been the biggest format since 2003), followed by Xbox 360, Wii and PS3.

The top ten games for 2007:

1 FIFA 08 EA Sport

2 Dr Kawashima's Brain Training Nintendo

3 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Activision

4 Pro Evolution Soccer 2008 Konami

5 More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima Nintendo

6 Halo 3 Mircosoft

7 The Simpsons Game EA Games

8 Wii Play Nintendo

9 Assassin's Creed Ubisoft

10 WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008 THQ

EDITORS NOTES:

About ELSPA - http://www.elspa.com

ELSPA (The Entertainment & Leisure Software Publishers Association) was founded in 1989 to establish a specific and collective identity for the computer and video games industry. Membership includes almost all companies concerned with the publishing and distribution of interactive leisure software in the UK.