According to leading marketing information provider. The NPD Group, annual 2004 US retail sales of videogames (which includes portable and console hardware, software and accessories) saw sales of over $9.9 billion--a decline of less than one percent when compared to $10 billion in annual 2003. However, while dollar sales were down slightly, total industry unit sales were up four percent over the same period last year.

For the first time ever sales of portable software titles broke the $1 billion mark. Total software sales also continued to set new records, with sales exceeding $6.2 billion, an increase of eight percent in overall sales when compared to $5.8 billion in 2003.

"The 2004 sales figures are impressive, especially as we enter the twilight of this hardware cycle and, more significantly, looking ahead, the videogame industry shows no signs of slowing down" says Douglas Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association, the trade association representing US computer and videogame publishers. "No other entertainment industry has posted the sustained growth over the last decade generated by the videogame sector, and given the technological and creative advances ahead, all signs point to surging growth and more record sales for many years to come."

For a healthy forecast of the videogame industry, ask Jacques Dussault, lead animator at Ubisoft, a Montreal-based game publisher with a dozen more development studios worldwide. "The industry has grown tremendously in the past five to 10 years and we're expecting the industry will double its size in the next seven years," he says.