That Happened!

New York - Because of the economic situation these days before Christmas, many people are trying to cut their holiday budgets as low as possible. But according to the latest reports, people are still buying video games at the same level, not cutting the spending for this kind of entertainment.

The research of NPD Group says that U.S. retail sales of video games earned a total of $2.91 billion in November,which is a 10 percent increase from a year ago. With a more than 16 billion $ sales, the overall sales this year through November are 22 percent more than the sales made in 2007.

According to Anita Frazier, working as an analyst in NPD Group, the reason for this situation today is because of the variety on newer generation consoles such as Sony’s Playstation 3, Nintendo’s Wii and Microsoft’s XBOX 360. Another main reason is that video games are one cheap form of entertainment offering unlimited hours of fun, so the customers spend their money without regards.

Matt Helgeson working as a senior editor at Game Informer magazine, agrees with these two reasons. Video games can take from 10 up to 50 hours of playing time and fun for the customers. “Gamers can often get two to three months out of one game.” During the hard times these days, Helgeson explains that video games “provide the ultimate escapism.” This way the people forget for a moment about the real world and live with their game heroes.

According to latest researches made by NPD Group , some of the best selling game titles in November this year include “Gears of War 2″, which is sold in more than 1.6 million copies, and “Call Of Duty: World At War”, which is sold in more than 1.4 million. Nintendo’s “Wii Play” and “Wii Fit” put up impressive numbers and have big roles in these sales.

With this numbers shown here, it is obvious that the biggest potential for most popular present for the kids this Christmas will be the video games especially the action, racing, sport and lifestyle genres. Today’s kids can’t live without the video games, and according to Helgeson the question of “do you play video games?” is replaced with the question “what games are you playing?”

There are different genres offering fun for everyone. From action games and adventure to social games, sports and management, there is video game for the smallest consumers to the oldest ones, from boys and girls to men and women. “Ages, races, social groups — video games cut across all platforms,” Helgeson said. Whether you’re shopping for the whole family or for a classic gamer, “there is something for everybody.”