According to an analyst quoted in the linked Ars Technica article, as of October of this year, more video games had been sold than in all of 2006. Considering that November and December are the biggest game-buying months of the year, this is huge news.

DVDs, on the other hand, are starting to slow in sales. Chalk it up to market confusion over High Def formats, or the fact that movies lately have been pretty bad, but DVDs have always been the great redeemer for movies that do poorly in theaters ("Eh, I'll wait for the DVD") so I imagine studio execs are pretty worried, in addition to the worrying they're doing over the fact that they have no writers.

For instance, Halo 3 sold more copies than Shrek 3, even though Halo 3 costs at least 3 times as much at $60. That could, of course, have something to do with the multi-million dollar ad campaign behind Halo 3 that spanned nearly all forms of media versus the fact that I didn't even know Shrek 3 was out on DVD yet (nor did I altogether care).

The story isn't lagging DVD sales, though, it's the increased game sales. Market saturation has at least seeped beneath the layer of hardcore gamers and meathead Madden fans. The Xbox's allure and the Wii and DS's casual gaming push may be the cause. Or it could be Peggle. Everybody's playing Peggle.

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