The BBC has properly reported on 2008’s video game sales figures, as released by ELSPA and GfK Chart-Track. Basically: we’re buying more games than ever, and across all formats.
But it’s not that I’m interested in. Unit and pound figures have been released, meaning we know the average price people are paying for games on each format – except PSP, which was hilariously ignored in the press release.
The 20.1 million Wii games were bought for an average £24, significantly down on the £29 paid per game in 2007. You’re buying more budget tat, basically.
The decrease on Nintendo DS games was not so hefty, to £18 each in 2008, from £21 in 2007. Xbox 360 games were cheaper too, but still £30 a pop, compared to £33 in 2007.
Inevitably, PlayStation 3 games were most expensive, at an average £32 each. That means that almost as much was spent on the 10.4 million PlayStation 3 games as the 19.1 million pieces of Nintendo DS software. Games about ponies are just cheaper than war games.
| 2008 | 2007 | |||||
| Units (m) | £ (m) | £/Unit | Units (m) | £ (m) | £/Unit | |
| Wii | 20.1 | 481 | 24 | 7.9 | 227 | 29 |
| Nintendo DS | 19.1 | 336 | 18 | 14.9 | 314 | 21 |
| Xbox 360 | 14.9 | 443 | 30 | 9.8 | 320 | 33 |
| PlayStation 3 | 10.4 | 334 | 32 | – | – | – |