UKIE: UK games market fell 13% during 2011

By Stephany Nunneley

UK trade body UKIE has released its annual industry report, and in 2011, boxed games sales came in at £1.42 billion, which is down 7% over 2010 which was still ahead of industry forecasts.

Overall, the total gross in the UK during the 52 weeks of 2011 came in at £2.520 billion, an overall drop of 13%. This equated to 82.0 million units sold all-told in the UK.

Total sales of console software came to £1.35 billion, with growth coming from Xbox 360 and 3DS with total hardware sales coming £646 million. Revenue from console and PC gaming accessories was £453 million, which is a 17% drop over 2010 with total sales reaching 22.4 million units, down 13%.

Motion Controller Devices accounted for around 11% of accessory units in 2011 and accounted for 27% of revenue. Total motion-enabled software across all consoles were up 6.7% in 2010 to 14.5% in 2011. The top-selling motion control software titles across all three formats in 2011 were Just Dance 3 for Wii, LittleBigPlanet 2 for PS3 and Forza Motorsport 4 for Xbox 360.

Traditional accessory units declined 23% and 27% in revenue.

“In a year when overall consumer spending was down, 2011 proved to be a better than expected year for the UK’s boxed-product games market,” said UKIE Chairman Andy Payne. “Helped by the launch of many top quality titles, particularly in quarter four, total software sales of £1.42 billion was better than many predicted.

“2011 still saw some remarkable achievements, including the release of Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, which exploded into UKIE Games Charts in week 45, 2011 generating £83 million and 2 million units in the UK over the first 5 days. And of course there was the launch of Nintendo’s 3DS hand-held, giving developers and publishers the chance of finding new and innovative ways to engage audiences.

“The industry looks forward to the continued popularity of cloud, mobile and casual platforms in 2012. And we’re also looking forward to the launch of Sony’s new Vita hand-held and the possible UK launch of Nintendo’s Wii U, both of which have the potential to re-ignite the console market, prior to any announcements concerning successors to Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PS3.”