Our business cards have arrived! :)

Yesterday I attended an event in York showcasing the Phoenix Centre, which is an initiative aimed at helping creative and technological startup businesses in the area. The event started with a presentation from some of the businesses based in the centre followed by a tour and networking.

I met some interesting people, and also had a chance to show off our plans and developments, which provoked some interest. The centre offers heavily subsidised office space for a year, with many benefits geared towards helping businesses on our wavelength succeed. Perhaps this could lead to something, who knows.

You may have heard the phrase “I’m in the wrong business”. As you’d expect, we’ve been doing some research about our industry and how it’s faring, especially considering these hard economic times.

It may not be surprising to hear that in recent years, the growth of the game software industry has been astonishing. Video games are now the most popular form of entertainment in the world, and it’s growth doesn’t look set to slow any time soon. To shed a light on the extent of this, below are a few interesting facts and figures for the UK.

Facts and figures for the UK

• Sales of video games between 2003 to 2007 increased 40 per cent.
• In the same period sales of movie tickets fell by 6%; the number of hours of TV watched dropped by 6%; sales of recorded music slumped 12% and purchases of DVDs remained flat.
• Sales of videogames in the UK hit an all time high of 82.8m in 2008.
• Consumers spent £4.04bn on video game hardware and software in 2008 in the UK alone.
• The Nintendo Wii made up almost a quarter of all software sales, which is more than 20m games sold. An increase of 112% on the previous year.
• A quarter of British homes now contain a Nintendo Wii; that’s 28 million consoles, and rising.
• Handheld games for the Nintendo DS sold 19.1m copies.
• Sales of software for the Playstation 3 console rose by 145%, selling 10.4 million units – more than double the 4.2m games sold in 2007.

Sources:
“Video games are poised to “eclipse” all other forms of entertainment”
“Sales of videogames in the UK hit an all time high”
Video games ‘more popular’ than film and music”