A PricewaterhouseCoopers study released to the The Hollywood Reporter today predicts that the video game industry will have a compound annual growth rate of 10.3% until 2012. The total industry gross is expected to rise from $41.9 billion in global sales last year to $68.3 in the next four years.Console gaming represents the largest category, and will grow from $24.9 billion last year to $34.7 billion in 2012. The PC gaming market will continue it's downward spiral and is predicted to have a -1.2% growth rate and drop to $3.6 billion by 2012.
PwC cites a few factors spurring this explosive growth in gaming revenue, including:
- mobile gaming is increasing becoming a viable platform with wider screens and better graphics
- increased penetration of broadband connections
- popularity of MMOs that include subscription fees and microtransactions
- game companies will keep on pumping out video game sequels that generate high revenue