Seems wierd since the talk all last year was about the reccession and people were not spending thier money on gaming (there was a big story about). Down to buisness Lots and lots. I brought a Wii. Games for my PS3 COD MW2, Assasins Creed, Borderlands, NFS Shift and pre-ordered Battlefield Badcompany2 cant wait. Also brought lots of other games that have long since been traded back in.

"So, how many dollars did you contribute to that $170 million figure?"

Far too many.

So, how many dollars did you contribute to that $170 million figure?

Too many!

Is the PC market dying like all the publishers are suggesting?

Great to see our industry is thriving in the middle of a 'recession'. Thanks for the slight plug for our site there Gerard. All the best for 2010! ;-)

Maybe $300 from the two of us... Though I would argue that a part of the increased revenue will be linked to the steep prices which we pay for games in NZ. Most of the "hardcore" gamers I know import from overseas if they're getting anything (usually getting together to take advantage of bundled deals). Add to that the fact that we haven't seen any significant price drops on the hardware and you can start to see where the profits were coming from.

I also assume that the figures would be ignoring rentals as well - quite a few releases were rentals for us last year (to evaluate what was worth buying).

The reality is that we will buy a game at shop prices IF it's likley to have an ongoing playability of 80hrs+. We were a bit hit and miss with that, Borderlands definatly does, but our other purchase of Dragon Age fell flat with the linear storyline and little replayability (will be using it as a trade in before too long I'd say).

I'd perhaps argue (and I would be interested in the answer to this question if you can find it) that NZers are not buying more, but paying more for the titles that they do buy (including hardware).

Lots.

Really lots. :(

I bought a number of games, plus a number of extra dollars spent on downloadable content and online titles, which as they mention aren't counted. Not to mention the Fallout 3 DLC - which I stupidly bought. Oh, nothing wrong with the game... but I paid for the game, and then purchased the DLC separately, only for them to release a Game of the Year Edition for the same price as all the DLC. If I'd have known THAT was gonna happen, I'd have traded off my non-GOTY edition for store credit at EB Games, then come back later on and spend it on that. Bahaha.

Well, can't win with your money all the time, right? :(

What exactly do they mean by online retail sales? Do they mean directly through the likes of XBL and PSN? Or the likes of MightyApe and F1rstGames?..... or both? Because if they aren't counting those... then I didn't contribute a cent. ;) I haven't purchased anything from a brick 'n mortar store for ages. Sure, I go to them to see what's available.... and then end up finding it cheaper online. It's only been recently that the likes of DSE have been offering competitive prices, the last month or so.

Hardware's a bit easy to see in regards to growth. 2009 was the year the PS3 finally become affordable, with the Elite dropping in price too. Couple that with The Beatles, DJ Hero, and Wii Sports Resort... yeah, hardware was pretty big last year overall. If we look past the PSPgo... ;)

I would have committed a lot to that figure.

To be honest my whole family would have. Recently came into possession of an Xbox 360 and a Wii at the start of the 2009 year and all the additions that come along. Also my father and myself (19) updated our computers spending at least $2000.00 on parts. My sister also contributed with a brand new dell gaming laptop for a birthday present. Games are also big spenders for us and if they included online subscriptions the figure would be even large >.<!

I always thought we were odd in our purchase figures and amounts but maybe not.

oh so much. but was definitely worth it ! ps3 mainly- -assasins creed 2 -oblivion -fallout 3 -cod modern warfare 2 x2 *for me n my bf*so we can both play online -headset!!!!!argh -saints row 2

oh and sims 3 for pc...and loads on rentals! oh my

I too probably helped out a lot with the bottom line. 2009 was the year that we bought our PS3, and Santa also got a couple of DSis for the kids. I'm not sure whether he sources his stuff locally or brings it with him from the North Pole, but I think with increased fuel costs that it would make sense for him to do the former. In any case, his gifts meant we had yet another gaming platform to waste our hard earned cash on.