High street entertainment retailer HMV has declared that game sales have been key to the company’s success over the past year, UK paper The Guardian is reporting.

The world beating success of games like Grand Theft Auto IV and Wii Fit has driven the retailer’s 25% increase in profits and overall market share. “We had a terrific year for games last year, with growth of about 60%. We’re ahead of where we planned to be; we’re riding the game growth wave, and we’re riding ahead of the curve.” said Simon Fox, HMV’s chief executive.

All this comes in the light of an overall decline in sales of CD’s as digital downloads get a stranglehold on the music industry, making videogames ever the more important to the highstreet (accounting for 21% of all HMV’s sales as CD’s slip beneath 30%).

Though for the time being everything is looking reasonable, and its definitely good to see gaming recognised as a pillar of the entertainment industry, as digital distribution becomes an ever more realistic alternative to the phsyical medium this might be one victory that turns out to be short lived.