With the phenomenal success of the global games industry, LAURA O’BRIEN examines where Ireland’s position is in the gaming market and what needs to be done to further it.
The global games industry is growing faster than ever. With many developers producing some of the highest quality of games at the moment, it’s not surprising to see this translate into sales.
Halo: Reach, the latest edition of the highly popular Halo franchise,made $200m worth of sales in the first day of its release. This eclipsed takings of the three-day opening weekends of blockbuster hits such as Toy Story 3, Iron Man 2 and Alice in Wonderland. Halo: Reach is not the only game to have got such high sales. Grand Theft Auto IV generated $310m in sales on its first day and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare topped this, pulling over $401m of sales on its release date in November 2009.
The social gaming industry is taking off, too. According to an NPD report, 20pc of the US population has played a game on social networking sites, with 35pc of social gamers being completely new to gaming. Considering how lucrative this industry currently is, what position is Ireland in to seize some of it? The country is home to many successful games companies which are making their marks worldwide.
Read more of ‘Everything to play for – Ireland’s gaming potential’ at Digital 21.
www.digital21.ie – Digital 21 is a campaign to highlight the imperative of creating an action programme to secure the digital infrastructure and services upon which the success of our economy depends.
