Gaming market to ride on new consoles

Local gaming enthusiasts have a lot going for them this holiday season. The upcoming Sony PlayStation 4 launch in the second week of December apart, a slew of coveted gaming titles are headed their way. “Gaming enthusiasts are counting down to the launch of Gran the much- awaited Turismo 6 [ GT6] — the latest version of the most popular racing game from Sony PlayStation — on December 6 and two years after the launch of GT5 which has sold over 10 million copies,” said Nadeem Khanzadah, head — retail, Jumbo Electronics. “The 70- million selling Gran Turismo [ GT] series is PlayStation’s best- selling franchise ever since debuting in December 1997. It offers a unique level of realism and the incredible attention to detail means that the sound of the engines in the game is based on recordings of actual vehicles.” Spike in software sales As such, retail market sources believe that gaming market will have a good run. “We expect to see a spike in software sales in 2014 and 2015,” said Ashish Panjabi, chief operating officer of Jacky’s Electronics. “Of the franchise titles that exist, we expect Fifa, Forza, Call of Duty, Assassins Creed, Battlefield and Just Dance to continue to do well. “EA’s NBA generally does well in most other regions, but has never been a major draw in the UAE. Angry Birds Star Wars may gain some traction as fans of the smartphone version may find it more appealing. “The appetite for console gaming in the UAE has been quite large as we’ve got a relatively young population that is also fairly affluent. Most reports have shown that this region ranks amongst one of the fastest growing for console gaming and thus we expect the Sony PlayStation 4 and Xbox One to dowell.” And a word of caution for those buying consoles from the grey market. “It is important to check whether you’re buying a PAL or NTSC console and whether the games available locally work with the regional settings of the purchased console,” said Panjabi. “Local warranties would also not be available.”