According to Gamasutra, December sales were up a whopping 59% in hardware and an anemic 5% increase in game sales. The most popular hardware platforms still remains PS/2 with 1.4 million units, followed by XBox 360 with 1.1 million, Wii - 604K and PS/3 with 490K.

Why do I predict 2008 to be the year when opportunities in game programming will explode.... 

1) My Personal experience this holidays...

I borrowed a Wii from a friend this holidays and I was just floored by it. It made me get off the couch and actually do something vaguely resembling exercise. I was amazed at the wiimote, the transducers or whatever they use, to detect motion and angles was great. In Tennis, I can actually do a top spin , lob  and the degree is controlled by how much of a swing I take. Sure, I can fake it but I Swung my arms like I would swing in a real court. I tried Tiger Woods PGA Tour, and the effect was near real, I did well where I normally do well in a course and stunk where I invariably fall apart in real life. The stroke, the swing speed, the putting where as real as you get and you get to complete in Pebble Beach and St. Andrews in the same hour.

Now here is the catch, Wii and this also goes for Xbox 360 and PS/3, have only a few titles out there, today, that makes full use of the new technology. Lot of them are down right horrible, a friend of mine tried Ping Pong (Table Tennis) on Wii and said that it really sucked.

There is a whole new way of designing and programming games using the Wii type of control compared to the old joystick. All the consoles sold are waiting for mind blowing games and game software makers better be ramping up.

2) Game Makers are not stupid

"....The focus for 2008 will be in the software category, where CEA estimates a 26 percent increase in sales over 2007," said Consume Electronics Association spokeswoman Jennifer Bemisderfer.

Brush up on your 3D Computer graphics, C++ and Object Oriented Programming and develop games that people like me will love, on their Wii's, Xbox and PS/3s.

 

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