Game Group still in the game

Game Group posted record full-year profits after games such as Guitar Hero and Nintendo's Wii Fit device broadened the appeal of video consoles, reports The Scotsman.

Pre-tax profit soared by 75% to £119.6 million (R1.6 billion) in the 53 weeks to 31 January, with the group's turnover rising by 32% to £1.97 billion (R25.8 billion).

The firm, which trades under the Game and Gamestation brands, said an "unprecedented" range of products attracted new customers from all generations.

A staggering 32 million gaming consoles in the UK have been sold as of January 2009 according to retail monitoring company Gfk Chart Track, says ITProPortal.

The figure, which is referred to as the combined UK lifetime sales, include the PS2, DS, PSP, Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii consoles and show that the three main gaming consoles have accumulated sales of 10 million units in the UK.

The Wii almost match the sales of the PS3 and XBox 360 combined despite being launched nearly a year later than the latter. But the PS2, which has received a price cut in the US and is still on sale in the UK, has sold a jaw-dropping 10 million units.

Sales of Apple's iPod touch, once discounted as a pricey niche product, have more than doubled over the past 12 months to rates nearly in line with the iPhone, fuelled by an explosion of attractive gaming titles on the App Store that are boosting overall multi-touch device shipments into Nintendo DS territory, writes Apple Insider.

Though largely overlooked in light of repeated cookie-cutter comments on the netbook space, Apple this week offered data sufficient for breaking out sales of its touch-screen iPod, something it has historically avoided in an effort to limit competitors' views of its success.

Specifically, Apple said last month that it ended 2008 with 30 million multi-touch users, 17 million of which were iPhone owners, and therefore 13 million of which were iPod touch users.