It's official: the UK is a nation of gamers. People are now spending more money on computer games than on going to the movies or renting videos.
Sales hit a record high in 2001 of £1.6bn, up 36% on last year - with PlayStation2 and Game Boy Advance doing particularly well. The trend looks set to continue into 2002, with Microsoft's Xbox and Nintendo's GameCube entering the UK market.
Gaming is a huge business - but you may not have noticed. While the latest movie blockbuster will be widely covered, the equivalent gaming hit is likely to be ignored. Most newspapers, if they cover games at all, submerge reviews in the IT or kids supplements rather than the arts or entertainment section.
Dave McCarthy, of respected gaming magazine Edge, blames widespread ignorance: commentators on the arts simply don't have sufficient knowledge of videogames; they seem incapable of contextualising the videogame industry in comparison with the early years of the movie industry.
Computer gaming has been around since Space War in the early 60s. The phenomenon of Space Invaders in the 70s, and the home console and computer craze of the eighties, saw millions of gamers glued to their Spectrums and Commodore 64s.
However, it wasn't until the mid 90s, and the release of Sony's PlayStation, that gaming really entered the mainstream. Here was a console that was aimed at an older demographic and consciously marketed in clubs and style magazines. Twentysomethings flocked to the machine and gaming moved from the bedroom to the living room.
The PlayStation 2 was launched in 2000, adding DVD playback to improved graphics and sound, as Sony targeted a joint gaming/film audience.
The move from geek to chic has been reflected elsewhere. Historically it was movies that got turned into, usually dreadful, games. Now Tomb Raider and Final Fantasy have returned the favour by inspiring some pretty dreadful films.
Meanwhile, the London Design Museum is running a show of old pcs and game consoles, while the Barbican will be staging an exhibition examining the 40-year history of gaming. Resident curator, Conrad Bodman, says the Barbican exhibition will "explain crucial developments in hardware technology, from the primitive, colossal computers of the early 60s to the GameCube".
Forget misconceptions of geeks and kids, gaming is a cultural phenomenon that is increasingly difficult to ignore. Microsoft, with their $500m Xbox marketing budget, is certainly taking the market seriously. It's time the rest of us did too.
