In his recent speech at the DICE Summit, ESA president Michael Gallagher noted that the video games industry has become mainstream. He even added that, "It may be an exaggeration today to say that everyone is a gamer, but the way things are going, it's not much of an exaggeration tomorrow."

Gallagher revealed that US software sales last year reached US$ 8.5 billion, an increase of 40 percent from the year 2007. Also, a total of 13.4 million handheld game systems were sold last year, exceeding Apple's recently released iPhone.

Another example would be the first day sales of Halo 3 competing to the opening weekend sales of Spider-man 3 and the first day sales of the latest Harry Potter book. Certainly, video games are a force to be reckoned with.

Even with the success of game titles such as Halo 3, there are still areas filled with potential growth. The way to reach these areas is through expanding to new demographics such as entertainment relationships, the parents, and even schools.

For games like Rock Band (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PS2) and Guitar Hero, they have started reaching out to the music industry. With features like parental controls and ESRB ratings, families can maximize the gaming experience without encountering explicit content. Schools have already started employing games such as Dance Dance Revolution and Wii Sports in to their physical fitness curriculum.

All in all, Gallagher encapsulated his speech by saying, "We need to improve how we talk about our business. We need to create an environment, an ecosystem that will lead to success in future years." We certainly agree with that assessment, and hope the games industry continues to grow in the future.

Via Games Industry