The UK game market is off to a roaring start in 2009. Comparing the first 5 weeks of this year to last, we see a 37% increase in unit sales and a 21% increase in revenues. This data puts the UK ahead of Japanese sales.

“I haven’t got a crystal ball, but it’s very much a possibility that the UK will overtake Japan in terms of annual software revenue. Japan is certainly in decline at the moment, mainly down to the fact that everyone seems to have already bought a DS or PSP, so hardware sales aren’t driving software sales – although DSi is flying off the shelves. The very sudden decline of PS2 is also a factor. The Japanese market is about twice the size of ours, so there is room for manoeuvre in terms of people who had a DS four years ago and want a new handheld. We need to wait until the middle of the year and have a firm date for DSi’s launch. Then we’ll really know what sort of year we’ll have.” - GfK-ChartTrack director Dorian Bloch

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