BBC News is reporting that it has been an extremely successful year for console gaming in the UK, seeing an unprecedented £1.5 billion in game sales in 2007. The over 25% increase from last year has been attributed to gaming as a whole becoming more mainstream.

Paul Jackson, director general of industry body Elspa: “Games are now truly mass market. Videogaming is enjoyed by everyone, young and old, male and female.”

It is reported that due to the critical success of a plethora of games in Q3, such as Super Mario Galaxy, Bioshock, Call of Duty 4 and Halo 3, more people have begun to show interest in the new consoles; “More than 11 million consoles were sold in the third quarter of the year, up 33% on last year.”