The game market is one of the most rapidly developing segments of world economy. In global terms it is now worth USD 37 billion, with analysts' consensus estimates putting it at USD 46 billion by 2010. In the United States the video game industry revenues now match those of the classic film industry. In 2006 total video game sales there rose to USD 7.4 billion, which represented a 6% YOY growth and a near threefold rise over the past 10 years. In the whole of North America video game spending exceeded USD 13 billion. On the European market, in Great Britain alone, 60 million games were sold at total of USD 2.5 billion. On the Asian continent, record sales in Japan – representing a 35% YOY growth – brought that local market above the mystical barrier of USD 5 billion whilst the dynamically developing Chinese market of nearly USD 900 million is expected to be worth more than USD 6 billion by 2010.

The ’casual games’ market has expanded at equally rapid rates. In the United States alone its total revenues stood at USD 228 million in 2002 to hit the USD 900 million mark by 2006. The number of female gamers is also on the rise and now represents around 38% of all players. Video games ceased to be the domain of the young. Average gamer age in the United States is 33, but the buyers on average are 38 years old. 92% of the people buying video games are over 18 years of age.

These data clearly demonstrate the continually growing opportunities of video game market. City Interactive has been seizing these opportunities in ways not dissimilar to those of Nintendo. The Japanese company used to specialize in consoles and games addressed to ’hardcore gamers’. It has now outpaced Sony and Microsoft to capture the position of the leading console producer, with its innovative DS and Wii models reaching new gamer segments. In other words, the extraordinary flexibility of the video game market puts new customer segments within easy reach of the companies capable of meeting demand for the most sought after forms of entertainment.