2007 was a great year for video games with the highest recorded sales ever, $17.94 billion.

 

A primary reason for the increase was the popularity of gaming consoles such as Wii from Nintendo and Microsoft’s (News - Alert) own gaming console.

 

Much of the credit for making video games popular is being attributed to Wii, which revolutionized the gaming market when it launched in 2006 for its motion-sensitive controller that lets players mimic movements for bowling, tennis or sword-fighting. The console became the best selling console of the year with 8.5 million units sold, 2.5 million of them in December. In short supply all year, the Wii still sold 6.3 million units, 1.4 million of them last month.

 

However, the credit for the best selling game of 2007 went to Microsoft with its blockbuster first-person shooter "Halo 3," which helped the company to sell 4.6 million Xbox 360s in 2007, about 1.3 million of them in December.

 

Sony did not have a particularly good year. The company’s PlayStation 3 did not sell more than a million units in December. But the future is looking bright for the company as it has slashed the console's price by $100 and launched a low-end model. There were 797,600 PS3s sold during the month, and 2.6 million in 2007.

 

NPD analyst Anita Frazier was quoted in an Associated Press report as saying, “I think the industry has become much more generally accepted as a mainstream form of entertainment over the last couple of years, and that sets it up well for future expansion.”

 

To meet the growing demands, Nintendo has raised the production of Wii's twice since last April, the last time to 1.8 million units a month. Although there is lot of demand for its console, the company has not yet announced any plans to again boost production.