Paris (AFP)

The French video game market decreased slightly (-2.7%) in 2019 after a record year, a withdrawal explained by the expectation of a new generation of consoles which will be released in 2020, according to an annual report published on Tuesday.

Total sales of hardware, PC and consoles, games - including mobile - and accessories reached a turnover of 4.8 billion euros, said the Union of Software Publishers (Sell) , which publishes its study "The Essentials of Video Games" on Wednesday.

"This small decrease was fairly predictable. Video games are a market of cycles dictated by the release of new consoles," Sell Sell president Julie Chalmette told AFP.

The new generation of consoles, notably those of Sony (PlayStation 5) and Microsoft (Xbox Series X), with increased performance, should be released at the end of the year accompanied by new games.

The market could therefore rebound to exceed 5 billion euros in 2020 or 2021, said Ms. Chalmette.

The turnover generated by the console ecosystem (including games and accessories) decreased by 9% over one year to 2.5 billion euros but still represents more than half (52%) of the total market.

Sales of consoles fell by 21%, while those of associated physical games (dominated by Fifa 20, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe) lost 11%. Dematerialized sales (full games, subscriptions, in-game purchases) on console remained stable.

In the ecosystem of computers dedicated to video games, revenues fell 12% to 1 billion euros, due to a drop in the price of games on average on this medium but also to the desertion of occasional players who turn to mobile gaming.

This one is "the only actor who has the wind in its sails", explains Julie Chalmette. Up 28%, it exceeded the PC ecosystem in revenues by 1.2 billion euros.

In this segment, neither physical sales, nor accessories, nor specific materials that are still marginal: all revenues come from dematerialized sales and micro-expenses within games.

Historical publishers such as Nintendo, Activision and Rockstar Games, who seek to conquer new audiences, are emerging among the most downloaded free and paid games, but the Finnish studio Supercell (Clash of Clans, Brawl Stars, Clash Royale) Chinese digital giant Tencent, which specializes in mobile gaming, still dominates the spending ranking.

© 2020 AFP