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The cosy family game will always exist. Although these games still get their content largely from other media like films or books, big concerns have for a long time been exploiting the value creation chain to the full. They create the media content themselves and thus become producers in the entertainment industry who also develop games.

Renewable energy, solar cells and hybrid motors are not only widely discussed in public but are also topics that are reflected in experimental kits. The multimedia industry is also in the process of shaking off the image that hardware and software is for freaks, and is even establishing them in old people’s homes.

No, the on-screen games have not managed to drive out the good old board game. What many people feared when children’s rooms started to be computerized has not happened. Further evidence is the fact that in some markets the "parlour game" segment is consistently the industry’s biggest product group (in Germany, for example). So, after all, enjoying the company of real people is different from the struggle in isolation to get high scores and the remote control of an avatar in virtual worlds.

However, international comparison shows the situation to be very varied.

The market shares in the first half of 2009 (all figures NPD Group, Inc.) fluctuated between 5 per cent in Great Britain and 13 per cent in Germany. At 11.8 per cent, the share in France is relatively high. Here we saw the highest rise compared with the same period last year. Sales of games grew by 7 per cent, certainly as a consequence of the expanding games scene in France, where they have their own publishers, gamer meetings and top-flight gamers.

Great Britain is also at the bottom of the league table in terms of growth in this product group of the toy market. The 32 per cent decline in sales of games is 13 per cent higher than the decline in the total toy market. Sales of games fell in Spain and Germany too. There was a drop of 6 per cent (market share 7.4 per cent) in Spain and a slight fall of 1 per cent in Germany. Sales of games in the USA rose by 5 per cent (market share 8.3 per cent, from projections based on consumer surveys).

Puzzles and parlour games are traditionally observed together in market research.

French puzzlers were responsible for 10 per cent growth in the market, the highest growth worldwide. The market share is 2.1 per cent. In Spain, the turnover of jigsaw puzzles fell by 9 per cent (market share 2.2 per cent).

In recent years, German consumers have shown much more interest in doing jigsaw puzzles and have reached the European average. Today, the puzzle segment has a 3 per cent market share, the highest figure in an international comparison. However, in the first half of 2009, sales of puzzles declined by 7 per cent. Great Britain and Italy also experienced a decline – minus 8 per cent and minus 5 per cent respectively.

In addition to France, only the USA experienced a small increase of 1 per cent (market share 2 per cent).

Germany has replaced Great Britain as the biggest market for video games in Europe and is the new number one in Europe. As reported by Media Control GfK International, sales figures in Germany stayed consistently high for the first half of 2009, whereas software sales in Great Britain fell by around 20 per cent compared with last year.

Portugal achieved the highest growth. The volume of games sold compared with last year grew by 16 per cent, and turnover rose by 11 per cent. Tanja Eisen from Media Control says: "The positive development is due to the total market, which, thanks to reaching new target groups, has expanded across all formats." There is also positive news from Sweden, where the sales volume of console software rose by 4 per cent. In the Netherlands, consumers bought 2.4 per cent more games than in the first half of 2008.

As in Germany, the markets in Italy and Belgium are practically unchanged. However, they are tending to develop differently: in Italy sales are slightly higher than last year, whereas the Belgian market is going in the opposite direction. Besides Great Britain, France and Spain are registering a fall in sales.

The industry association BITKOM anticipates that the industry in Germany will achieve sales of a good 2.7 billion euros with consoles, games programmes for consoles and PCs in 2009. The games market in Germany can thus expand by another percentage point on the already high level of 2008. Sales rose by 17 per cent in 2008, and by as much as 29 per cent in 2007. On account of its high growth rates in recent years, the games industry has become an important economic factor for the media industry.

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