Handhelds Push Games Industry Higher

PSP and DS play a big part in big gains for the US market.

The new portables from Nintendo and Sony have been a huge success with Americans. The latest figures from the US, courtesy of GameSpot, show that the DS and PSP played a large part in helping the games industry to grow by more than 20 per cent over last year to $4.1 billion (£2.3 billion) for the opening six months.

Not just a pretty face

But it wasn't just the new handhelds that made publishers and developers tilt atop their bulging wallets. While the PSP and DS did push sales up by more than 10 per cent, console games are on the up as well.

Sony's dominance is evident in the Top 10 for the first half of the year (see below), which is populated by no less than six PlayStation 2 games - including Gran Turismo 4, which finished on top.

Traditional top-sellers Pokémon and Legend of Zelda made the upper tier too, while only one GameCube game and one Xbox game made the cut.

Things aren't as rosy for the companies individually though.

Both Sony and Nintendo saw huge percentage drops in their profits for this winter, relative to 2004. This is largely because of the money both companies are investing in their next-generation consoles, but Nintendo was also hurt by the paucity of new games from the company this year.

The Top 10 games in the US for the first half of 2005, as determined by NPD Group, are given below:

1. Gran Turismo 4 (PlayStation 2) - Sony
2. Pokémon Emerald (Game Boy Advance) - Nintendo
3. MVP Baseball 2005 (PlayStation 2) - EA
4. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (PlayStation 2) - LucasArts
5. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PlayStation 2) - Take-Two
6. God of War (PlayStation 2) - Sony
7. Zelda: The Minish Cap (Game Boy Advance) - Nintendo
8. Resident Evil 4 (GameCube) - Capcom
9. Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition (PlayStation 2) - Take-Two
10. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (Xbox) - LucasArts

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games