THE PACIFIC TERRITORY REPORT Sponsored by
TERRITORY REPORT: THE PACIFIC REGION
New Zealand and Australia are two countries with high populations of gamers thanks to the rise of social and mobile titles. Alex Calvin looks at a market kept afloat by these new forms of gaming
T
he Pacific Region is still a strong location for video games with digital
revenue bolstering an already healthy market. This is particularly true in
Australia where last year $2bn was made from video games according to data from New Zealand and Australia’s gaming trade body IGEA. Of this figure $1.14bn was from physical retail sales, while digital sales totaled a huge $899m – a 50 per cent increase on 2012. According to information from NPD Group Australia, the amount made from physical stores was steady throughout the year. There was also a hardware
spike – console sales increased by 13 per cent, due to the launches of both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One at the tail end of last year. The 3DS and 2DS handheld machines helped with this increase, too. Video games are a big deal in the country. According to a report by trade body IGEA in their Digital Australia 14 report, 65 per cent of Australians play video games. This is considerably up from the findings of the 2012 report where 47 per cent of the population were said to be gamers.
DIGITAL GROWTH This is likely due to the rise of casual and social gaming. In 2013 $452m was generated by mobile games – roughly 50 per cent of the total digital figure – while social and casual games generated $98m. According to research firm Telsyte twice as much money
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was spent through in-game transactions than full price games in 2013, and predicts that this figure is only set to increase as more free-to-play games enter the market for Android and iOS platforms. On average, $5 was spent on
in-app purchases per household each month in 2013. Meanwhile, $1 was spent on games merchandise every month on average, which is a sign of how important this sector has become to gamers retailers.
$2bn
The value of the Australian video
games market in 2013 – $899m of which came from digital
In New Zealand it is a rather similar affair. The nation’s gaming market made NZ$300m in 2013. While this is a smaller figure than the Australian market, you must note that Australia’s population is roughly five times that of New Zealand’s. But the fraction of gamers
in the country is roughly the same in both territories – two in three New Zealanders play video games. All is not looking well
for New Zealand retail, however. $133m was made from physical
35 July 11th 2014
retail sales, a decline of eight per cent year-on-year.
HARDWARE DECLINE While the New Zealand market as a whole is growing, hardware sales declined year- on-year. IGEA blames this on the dawn of the new consoles, which were only on sale for the last six weeks of the year and says that hardware sales slowed down in the build-up to the new consoles. IGEA does predict that hardware sales will increase in 2014
due to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Like Australia, there has been
an increase in the number of digital games sold. According to IGEA, $162m was made from digital sales in 2013 as more people purchase mobile games. Like Australia, this forms roughly 50 per cent of the total spend in the games industry last year.
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