Computer game sales show healthy rise

New Zealand sales revenue for interactive games and entertainment last year increased at three times the rate of Australia's, figures from the Interactive Software Association show.

Isanz president Mark Goodacre confirmed that some of the 12 per cent increase in sales was due to an increase in the value and price of the items. But there was also a significant increase in number of units sold.

The increase coincided with a push in marketing for Nintendo's Wii console.

Isanz said sales of $170 million includes all sales from hardware, gaming peripherals and traditional boxed software.

Goodacre said there was a trend towards more family-oriented games that did not fit into the old image of computer gaming.

Twenty-seven per cent of all software sales were from the family games genre, one-third more than in 2008. Hardware sales increased by 13.5 per cent from the previous year. Last year 1.132 million units were sold, compared with 1.075 million units in 2008. Sales for gaming peripherals increased 37 per cent.