“There is a tremendous potential based on the hugh population centres of China and India,” said Greg Unsworth, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PWC) Asia-Pacific technology industry leader.

The firm’s Global Entertainment and Media Outlook report for 2007 to 2011 predicts the video game market will be worth US$18.8 billion in 2011 and see a compounded annual rate of 10 percent for the 2007 to 2011 period, better than the 9.1 percent expected for the global market.

PWC defines the market as consumer spending on gaming software and subscriptions, including spending on console games, personal computer games, online game subscriptions and games downloaded for mobile phones.

The console and hand-held sector is expected to grow from US$5.9 billion in 2006 to US$7.9 billion in 2011, the largest segment of the regional video game market.

Online games are forecast to follow driven by rising broadband penetration rates. Sixty-two million online games subscribers are expected to spend US$5.2 billion in 2011 compared with US$2.5 billion in 2006.

The wireless gaming market is also forecast to see aggressive growth from under US$2 billion in 2006 to US$4.4 billion in 2011.

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