Why games are not just for kids

For several years now, the computer games industry has dwarfed that of Hollywood films for earnings. New figures indicate that the market for games in the UK topped £4 billion for the first time in 2008 – nearly four times higher than UK box office takings. There is no question, this is big business.

The largest computer games company in the world, Nintendo, has enjoyed sustained growth in sales over the past few years, largely as a result of the popularity of its 'Wi' games console and portable 'DS' console – both of which are market leaders in their respective fields. How Nintendo has achieved this is interesting. In brief, the company has aggressively pursued a marketing and branding strategy that has helped its products to appeal to consumers outside of the conventional 'teenage boy' stereotype.

First of all, Nintendo's image is bright and childlike – the inverse of the common stereotype – helping the company's products to appeal to very young children and, most importantly for Nintendo's profit margins, women – a sector of the public previously alienated by the idea of video games, for the most part, now being welcomed to join in. And, it is not just changes to the company's image that have been central to the company's success. Nintendo's innovative Wi console was the first to allow gamers to interface with its games by moving around their living rooms; the DS, the first handheld system of its kind with an in-built touch interface. And with programmes such as 'Wi Fit' and the 'Brain Training' series for the DS, at the centre of Nintendo's marketing campaign, selling them as lifestyle tools – something for the whole family. Nintendo enjoyed revenues of more than 1.8 trillion Yen for the fiscal year ending March 2009.

Then, there are the enormous budgets and revenues involved, easily equivalent to, and in some cases greater than that of the latest Hollywood movies. Rockstar Games, headquartered in Edinburgh, which produces the 'Grand Theft Auto' series holds the record for the most expensive game of all time, with over US$100 being spent on the latest in the Grand Theft Auto Series. While Microsoft holds the records for the most profitable, that being Halo 3, which sold more than US$170 million worth of copies in the first twenty-four hours of its release.

One game that is likely to be around a lot longer than any of these is chess, that classic battle of logic and concentration, which is still going to take some beating in my book. Kasparov beating Karpov 9-3 in their recent rematch – what could possibly be more exciting!

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