PricewaterhouseCoopers says that the video games industry will grow by $26.4 billion (£13.4 billion) by 2012, more than nearly all other forms of media.

The company's Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2008-2012 report says that the industry will grow from $41.9 billion (£21.25 billion) in sales last year to $68.3 billion (£34.6 billion) in 2012, a compound annual growth of 10.3%. The only media that will trump that are online advertising and access.

The company expects online and wireless games to grow the fastest at 16.9% and 19% respectively. Just behind those categories is in-game advertising, which is expected to grow at an annual compound rate of 16.7% from $1 billion (£507 million) level in 2007 to $2.3 billion (£1.16 billion) in 2012. PwC expects console games to grow a little more sluggishly at 6.9% annually.

"That's phenomenal growth", says PwC partner Stefanie Kane of the games advertising sector.

PC Games weren't given quite such a rosy outlook, however. PWC says that the platform's sales will fall 1.2% a year from $3.8 billion (£1.93 billion) in 2007 to $3.6 billion (£1.83 billion) in 2012.

That's a bit ambiguous though. What SPOnG would like to know is whether that estimate includes the aforementioned online games; and exactly what constitutes an 'online' game. Are downloadable console games included in the online category? Are downloadable single-player games included, or does it just refer to games that involve purely online gameplay? SPOnG presumes it refers to games that are bought online or played through a browser. So, the 'online' growth rate mentioned above may include downloadable console games, but even so the majority is likely to be PC-based.

If that 1.2% decline for PC does include online games, then web-based titles will be buoying up what must be a gargantuan slide in sales for traditional PC titles. If it doesn't... well, it should.

PwC cites increasingly sophisticated mobile phones, growing broadband penetration and the ever-escalating popularity of MMOs as the reasons for the anticipated growth.

^{Source: Reuters}