New data gathered by ELSPA and Chart-Track in the UK, and presented by UK trade paper MCV, has shown some interesting changes in the market share percentages for publishers in the UK during 2005.
The biggest publisher continues to be Electronic Arts, although its market share dropped from over 20 percent in 2004 to 18.2 percent in 2005. THQ had a rather better year, growing from 5.0 percent in 2004 to 7.2 percent, thanks to titles such as
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2006 and a significant budget catalogue.
Despite a relatively weak Christmas, Activision grew its share from 6.3 percent to 7.1 percent, with the discounting on titles such as
Call of Duty 2: Big Red One and
Gun having a significant effect on the company’s share of the market. French publisher Ubisoft rose even more sharply, from 5.3 percent to 7.0 percent, thanks to high profile releases such as
Peter Jackson’s King Kong.
With neither Nintendo nor Microsoft were represented in the top ten list of publishers, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe came in at number five, with a rise from 5.1 percent to 6.2 percent, followed by Vivendi Universal Games, who was down from 5.8 percent to 4.8 percent.
Take-Two also lost market share at 4.5 percent, while Sega broke into the top ten, following the success of
Football Manager 2005 and the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise. Konami also debuted in the top ten thanks to a soccer title, in this case
Pro Evolution Soccer 5, while Atari rounded out the top ten with a fall from 4.6 percent to 3.2 percent.
The highest ranked British publisher was Codemasters at number sixteen, with Eidos Interactive falling to number seventeen, following the disruption surrounding the company’s buyout by fellow British publisher SCi.
