Nintendo Wii Fanboy

When it comes to the UK, we really only know one person. So we've just assumed for the longest time that gaming was the bee's knees in the country. Turns out that folks living there have enjoyed other forms of entertainment for a long time. They're all starting to come around now, thankfully.

According to a report conducted by Verdict Research, gaming is poised to be the top form of entertainment there for the first time ever this year. The projections for sales figures show the games industry earning 4.64 billion pounds, compared to the 4.46 billion pounds the music and video industry is expected to generate. We wonder how much of that is thanks to the Wii?

So, UK readers, does this surprise you? Is gaming a big thing with your inner circle, or has gaming only recently become the activity of choice? How much of your own cash do you think is in that 4.64 billion pound figure?

There's a hot new report out in the Land of the Rising Fun, which states that 67% of Wii owners just want to be left alone by their Wii. They haven't spent any quality time with their console in quite awhile. The question is, why? Did those people pick up the console merely for Wii Sports?

What is everyone waiting on? We know we're waiting on a few games, most notably Super Mario Galaxy and Super Smash Bros., but we've still found other reasons to pick up a Wiimote and play. Not only did we get some sweet retail releases in the past couple of months (Metroid Prime 3, Resident Evil 4 and Super Paper Mario, anyone?), but also some really good Virtual Console games.

Regardless, we know those folk will be picking up their Wiimotes soon enough.

Sure, we've seen the countless polls and message board flamethreads that are the next-generation console wars. Amidst all the fanboy dreck, however, it's nice to know that industry experts can offer their opinions in a logical fashion, with solid facts to back up their conjectures. Such a report can be found here, written by DFC Intelligence's David Cole. It shares some interesting views on the current market views regarding the Playstation 3 (especially from an international perspective), and describes the possibilities of shift in console market share. Certainly a read for the more business-minded gamer, but a decent one nevertheless.