Games overtaking music at HMV

Video games are set to become more lucrative category than music for HMV.

Britain’s leading CD retailer has predicted that music will soon account for a quarter of its sales – down from the 30 per cent it enjoys at present.

HMV CEO Simon Fox told The Sun: Within the next 12 to 18 months, it’s possible games will be bigger than music for us.

Music is in our DNA and we are totally committed to it. But the fact is, the market is moving away from music — so we are giving more space in our stores to games.”

He added: In games, we grew by just over 50 per cent, ahead of the market. And looking forward to Christmas, Wii Fit will continue to do well, Fifa 09 will be huge, as will Gears of War, Guitar Hero and Rock Band. There’s a good line-up of releases.”

However, Fox said he was confident that this year’s music releases – which include new albums form Oasis, Kaiser Chiefs Dido and Snow Patrol – would better last year’s results.

Fox was speaking after HMV revealed sales for its latest 18-week trading period were up 4.1 per cent on the previous 12 months.