Analysts point to Australian games industry growth

Analysts have predicted an upswing for the Australian games industry, which has seen depressing shrinkage over the last few years.

Gamespot reports the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association's annual briefing hosted analyst firm PricewaterhouseCoopers and researchers Roy Morgan, which both showed optimism.

Roy Morgan reported back on research conducted over the last few years suggesting gaming is becoming more mainstream in Australia.

The research found more than half of all Autralians over 14 reported playing games at least once every three months. PC gamers represented the largest slice of this with 38 percent of respondants, but consoles were close behind at 35 percent and mobile gaming a respectable 20 percent. Only three precent reported using all platforms to game.

Hearteningly, Roy Morgan's demographic report found 52 percent of Australian gamers are female, and discovered gamers had grown up, falling minly between 25 and 34 years of age.

In its yearly Australian Entertainment and Media Outlook 2011-2015, PricewaterhouseCoopers predicted an annual 9.5 percent growth factor for the Australian industry over the next four years.

The growth rate outpaces the firm's predictions for other entertainment and media sectors as well as international markets, which overall are expected to grow by 8.2 percent per year.

The report nominated accelerated broadband and mobile adoption, digital distribution, and micro-transactions as key motivators for the expected upswing, and predicted a full half of games spending will occur in the digital sector by 2015.