The economy is hurting, but that's not stopping people from buying gaming hardware and software, DFC says.

Worldwide, there are now 11 countries with annual games revenue of over $1 billion, according to the firm. 

"Consumer spending on software is at record levels and the game business seems to actually benefit from a recession because games are a relatively cheap form of home entertainment," said DFC analyst David Cole.

The U.S. saw nearly $19 billion in retail console and PC sales in 2007, according to NPD Group, a figure that doesn't include online revenues.

DFC's forecast includes revenues from videogame hardware, software, dedicated handheld hardware and software, PC games and online PC and console games across 25 countries.

DFC expects Wii to be the best-selling console of this generation worldwide, followed by PS3 and then Xbox 360.

"The Wii does not appear to be a fad and it has the chance to be one of the best selling systems of all-time," Cole said.

He expects annual PS3 software sales to equal Wii's by 2012.

In a separate DFC report, analyst Jeremy Miller suggested that third parties will have a tough time competing with first-party Nintendo software on the Wii.

"The Wii not only has unique features and a broad demographic appeal, but Nintendo is dominant as a software publisher," he said. "For many third party publishers this means they will have much greater success on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, even if Wii sales continue to be strong."

The console race garners much of the interest from industry watchers, but it's the PC that was the top platform for games in 2007, DFC said. The firm's Online Game Market Forecasts report pegged PC online sales alone at $7 billion last year, not including retail sales.

DFC forecasts total PC gaming revenue to hit $19 billion by 2013.

Link

Seems we have an Einstein in the making.

That part about third parties is ridiculous.  When a third party puts in the creative, developmental, and marketing resources the third party games sell.  Publisher keep putting out rushed, uninspired crap, with little to no marketing on Wii.

well isnt it obvious already

The fact that the Wii has been out for 18 months and is still hard to find. Yeah I would think that is not a fad.

I love when analyst state the obvious.

took them long enough to figure that out

The way this is written I see what every other Analyst has said in the past, but they let the obvious lead them to a different conclusion.... Which then because of this it's missing key components in how to get that conclusion makes it seem that both conclusions have them in the frame such as grasping for straws.

Doesn't seem like they did their homework at all. Keywords like "trends" or at least an explanation of the trend in place of that word and mind share aren't even mentioned, you can use sales to determine mind share and you can use the to find trends. The two define each other - finding both is almost like achieving foresight.

 Oh. I wonder what those 11 countries are. I would have though that Sweden would make the top 10, but that's impossible since Swedish revenue from game software is 2.3 billion Swedish crowns (if I remember correctly) which equals rufly $0.38 billion. Add HW to that and it's rufly $0.6 billion only. Not even close to $1 billion.

1. USA
2. Japan
3. UK
4. Germany
5. South Korea
6. France
7. Italy
8. Canada
9. Spain
10. Australia
11. The Netherlands? Mexico? China?

Wow, is this guy joking lol

i guess all the sales analysts were wrong.

leo-j's Wii end of 2008 LTD sales prediction: 29 to 33 million, will be passed by September. You might as well cross that prediction out as say you will be wrong.