Video Games and Games Consoles are likely to be at the top
of a lot of Christmas lists this year. According to Ezine the top ten gifts are
likely to be:
- The Nintendo Wii
- The Wii Fit
- The Nintendo DS
- Sony Playstation 3
- Xbox 360
- Sony PSP
- Lego Mind Storm
- Silverlit PicooZ Twin Blade 3 Channel Helicopter
- Lego Speed Racer & Snake Oiler
- The Original Rubix Cube
It’s interesting to note that according to this source (I’m
sure there are others) the top seven Christmas Gifts are either consoles or peripherals
(eg: the Wii Fit). Games retailers also seem to be avoiding the effects of the
global credit crunch with good pre-tax
profits. Even Sony who is estimated to make
8000 global job cuts has avoided cutting anyone from their Playstation
Group.
"We're certainly not planning to cut back in
personnel at all. Half of our personnel are in the development of the games,
that's an investment. We're not scaling down at all”. (Source)
Indeed there is such a demand for games consoles and games, 2008
has seen and up-surge of fake consoles and increased piracy. This has prompted HM
Revenue & Customs to issue a warning to UK consumers following the seizure of hundreds
of fake consoles at UK freight depots. The consoles were most commonly
bought from websites based in Asia, they claim
to be 'genuine products' (which is usually a sure sign that they're not) with
models like the Nintendo DS going for £40 instead of the usual £100.
Video Game Piracy has also increased during 2008. With the amazing
Spore
reported as being the most
pirated video game of the year. The other nine most pirated games are shown
in the table below:
(source)
Elsewhere in the UK police and customs officials have been working hard to try and put a stop to, at
least, the production of pirated games within the UK. Police
recently raided a warehouse and seized £1m worth of dodgy merchandise. Around
30,000 illegally copied discs were found, with about 9000 of these being computer
games, along with all the hardware needed for such activities including seven
PCs hooked up to 35 DVD burners, three printers and 19 hard drives.
One thing is for sure video games, computers and games consoles
are now part of our every day lives. Peoples perceptions and use of computer games are changing. There are some interesting statistics on the changing
trends of video games in this presentation that I found on SlideShare.
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