Videogame sales outsell cinema/ film over past year in UK

Over the past year, it has been calculated that more money within the UK has been spent on video games compared to films – either in regards to cinema trips or purchasing films on DVD/ Bluray.

This becomes the first sign that the games industry has transformed itself from being able to shrug its ‘geeky’ reputation as being an obsessive hobby for teenage gamers, into becoming a mainstream source of entertainment for entire families across the world.

Data company GFK Chart-Track has confirmed that over the past year, up until the end of September 2009, £1.73 billion has been spent on video games, which outpaces the £1 billion that the UK Film office has stated as revenue for cinema box office figures alongside £198 million spent on both DVD and Bluray film titles.

This means that only television, which includes DVDs of tv shows, the costs of tv licenses and satellite subscriptions, and music remain to be larger forms of entertainment in terms of revenue.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Tom Watson, the former Cabinet Office minister, believes that the statistics are proof enough that the video games industry needs to be taken more seriously. “Like anything digital, Parliament has a very narrow view of video games. Too many politicians think video games are played by teenage boys staying up all night shooting things in their bedroom,” he begins. “And yes there are plenty of those, but there also a huge range of people of many different ages who love playing games. The industry has matured over the last decade, and so too have gamers.”

He feels that his beliefs were confirmed with the controversy and debate that was recently created from the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 in November, which has since become the fastest selling video game title in history. Such a negative political response to the game typifies the incredibly narrow minded attitude that an unfortunate majority of people have about video games – for despite postive reviews, and selling 1.2 million units in a day, it has been criticised for encouraging violent behaviour.

To close Watson stated, “Yes, let’s have a debate about unpleasant content in video games, but don’t beat up on the whole industry.”

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

Prince of Persia: Sands of Time – Official film trailer

Films based on games have had varying degrees of both success and failure, so news that Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer were set to make a film based upon the highly acclaimed Prince of Persia series was initially met with varying degrees of concern.

However, the latest trailer released today gives us much hope that the film will do the franchise justice – even though trailers are inevitably designed to show you all the best bits to get you excited about things, it can’t be denied that it looks like it’s shaping up nicely! Check it out below.