[video: Fifa 07 XBox 360 presentation]

Let's take a look at some facts first. According to a PriceWaterhouseCoopers-Study, 27 Billion US-Dollars were turned over with video games in 2005. This is already more than the movie industry makes. And by 2010, the research institution expects sales rising up to 47 Billion US-Dollars. An ambitious outlook, but it seems possible to reach.

One reason for the increasing popularity of video games is rapidly advancing technology. Take football animations, for example. They look so real. And they basically are. Game developers work with TV-footage. They animate the original scenes and thus create characters and movements. So, if you foul popular Italian strikers, the animated versions will roll on the field and hold their legs just like in the World Cup.

Another reason is the formation of a new gamer-scene. A guy who is into video games nowadays does not fit into the typical pimple-geek image. Especially girls have become more and more interested in this up-to-date pastime. Of course, marketing departments have already reacted. The most prevalent colour of the Games Convention 2006 in Leipzig, the worlds' biggest video game exhibition, was actually pink.

Now, when young girls are really getting into something, it's not far from being pop. Examples are: Elvis, Leonardo Di Caprio, Kurt Cobain and, most recently, tattooed football-stars.

Anyway, idols of the gaming world are the developers. At the Games Convention, an eyewitness reported wild screaming and jumping at press conferences when developers entered the podium. However, the applause is legitimate. Game developers invent new realities. Through their popular approach, they were able to create a market quickly. From here, maybe some creatives will leave the commercial trail and enter the sphere of art. Who knows, I'm curious.