Global games market will be worth $55bn by 2012, says Activision

Activision Blizzard might not be a member of E3-organiser the ESA, but that hasn’t stopped it from making a bid to, in the word of one insider, ‘own’ the event.

E3 starts today with press conferences from publishers and format-holders – but Activision didn’t want to wait.

So along with Modern Warfare posters all over the Los Angeles Convention Center, the firm hosted an investors event yesterday (Sunday, May 31st) which ran through its product line-up on the showfloor and views on the industry.

Most significant, however, was Activision’s CEO Bobby Kotick opening the event by detailing the various ways the industry has and will grow – and how his company has overcome what it regularly referred to as ‘a tough macro-economic environment and challenging retail situation’.

Kotick told attendant investors that he thinks the global video game industry would grow from $39 billion in 2008 to $55 billion in 2012.

As an antidote the other entertainment mediums, which are shrinking in the recession, he said that games are broadening to include a wider audience thanks to things like Wii. That’s why the firm has invested heavily in the new peripheral-based Tony Hawk: Ride and DJ Hero games, and wants to keep aggressively growing the Guitar Hero franchise.

Click here to read more on this report over at MCV.