Record year for game sales...in UK

Even the most optimistic analysts believed that 2005 would be a difficult year for the gaming industry. Taking into consideration the monster year that was 2004 and the predicted calm during the transition period between generations of consoles, most analysts were thinking a successful year would mean coming anywhere close to last year's numbers. In fact, ever since industry group NPD released some very lackluster November sales numbers, clouds of gloom have hung over the industry.

That wasn't the case in the United Kingdom, however. The ELSPA (Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association), a unified collection of companies involved in entertainment software sales in Britain, released their estimate for 2005's sales figures in the region today, and the results were positive.

Unlike the projected dip for the United States, the UK's numbers for software sales across all platforms in 2005 actually went up. When compared to 2004's record-setting numbers, last year's sales went up .7 percent to 1.35 billion British pounds ($2.38 billion).

Roger Bennett, director general of ELSPA, said, "We are now starting to see a trend in the market where software sales continue to rise even during the cycle before the introduction of exciting new technologies, with software publishers fully exploiting the tried and tested current hardware platforms. It is a testament to the strategic marketing initiatives of the entire industry that, despite being a transition year between current and next-generation hardware, our industry has still continued to gain momentum."

Official numbers from US sales in 2005 have not yet been released.