Trade’s not boxing clever

The market hasn’t crashed to a halt, however.

At the recent London Games Conference GfK-ChartTrack boss Dorian Bloch revealed that overall the market for games sold on the High Street will be down around 10 per cent year on year.

That’s a 250m deficit on 2008.

It’s not necessarily a bad headline – it still means the market is on course for a strong Christmas. Thank the retail gods for Modern Warfare 2, Wii Fit Plus, Assassin’s Creed II, FIFA 10 and the newest Mario & Sonic.

But it is a warning signal – it’s fast becoming apparent that measuring the traditional market alone doesn’t prove games’ potency. There’s a bigger story about the amount of money being spent on Facebook, Direct2Drive and Xbox Live still to be told.

That’s why the upcoming revamped UK PC chart is so vital – and only just the first formal step towards the industry really embracing digital sales.