Games Poised to Overtake Music at HMV

The chief executive of entertainment retailer HMV has said that games could overtake music as the company’s biggest earner within the next year.

Simon Fox told The Sun that he expects music to account for just a quarter of HMV’s sales in the near future, while videogames, which currently account for 19 percent of total sales, are forecast to grow rapidly.

“Within the next 12 to 18 months, it’s possible games will be bigger than music for us,” Fox said.

“Music is in our DNA and we are totally committed to it. But the fact is, the market is moving away from music — so we are giving more space in our stores to games.”

Earlier this week HMV reported like-for-like sales growth of 4.3 percent for the 18 weeks ended August 30, attributing the growth to the its ‘strategic initiatives to increase the mix of games and technology’.

“In games, we grew by just over 50 percent, ahead of the market. And looking forward to Christmas, Wii Fit will continue to do well, FIFA 09 will be huge, as will Gears of War, Guitar Hero and Rock Band," Fox added.

via Edge

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