Record Year For Games

And it would have been stronger if people could actually buy one of those Xbox 360 things.

Listening to the doomsayers in the weeks leading up to the unexpectedly-flat Christmas sales period, you could be forgiven for thinking that things weren't going all that well with games in the UK. The truth is, however, far removed.

Josie helped boost sales of Need for Speed, one of the most wanted games of 2005. Any excuse to use her pic will do.

2005 was a record year for the UK games industry, which managed to rake in an impressive £1.35 billion during the year, taking it nearly 1 per cent higher than 2004 - no mean feat when you consider that the year before was littered with some of the biggest games of the current generation.

Things would probably have gone better still in the UK had Microsoft been able to finish the year off strongly instead giving us a limp-wristed Xbox 360 launch that was defined more by the lack of hardware that the popularity of software. Xbox sales have also dropped off in the wake of its next-gen successor's arrival.

"The leisure software market is a UK success story in terms of economy, innovation and creativity," said Roger Bennett, outgoing director general of the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association.

"This we have seen demonstrated throughout 2005, and we look forward to a colossal year in 2006 with the launch of further major interactive entertainment hardware platforms."

At look at the Top 10 games for the year (see below), shows the usual soccer and driving updates dominating the charts and the big movies out this year saw their video game tie-ins score big too. Not surprisingly, EA, the biggest games publisher, features heavily, in four of the top 10 spots.

The Top 10 games for 2005, as determined by ELSPA and Chart Track, are given below:

1. FIFA 06 (EA)
2. Pro Evolution Soccer 5 (Konami)
3. Need For Speed: Most Wanted (EA)
4. Gran Turismo 4 (Sony)
5. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith (LucasArts)
6. FIFA Street (EA)
7. Star Wars Battlefront II (LucasArts)
8. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Rockstar)
9. King Kong (Ubisoft)
10. The Sims 2 (EA)

Kikizo Staff