Australian game sales drop 16%

The Interactive Games & Entertainment Association has released figures showing a marked decline in the Australian games industry in 2010, with sales dropping 16 percent from 2009's totals.

According to Gamespot, the industry's total revenue down under for 2010 was AUD $1.7 billion.

IGEA president Ron Curry said the gloomy news can be put down to worldwide economic trouble, and is positively indicative of the local market's strength.

"Compared to the most other international territories, our local interactive entertainment market has done considerably well to weather the global economic crisis," he said. "What we are seeing now is a leveling or righting of the market."

Digital distribution, DLC, subscriptions, mobile and online retail sales were not included in reported sales data from GfK Australia used to compile the report, which may also account for some downturn.

Console games and hardware sales dropped considerably, but interestingly, PC game sales bucked the trend and increased by 7 percent. Game sales were dominated by gamily titles.

The IGEA are predicting an upturn over the next few years, with revenue topping AUD $2.5 billion by 2014. Online and mobile games are expected to show strong performance increases, hitting AUD $534 million AUD $496 million respectively in the same period.