The straw that stirred the drink in 2007 was “Halo 3,” with its record-breaking sales of more than $450 million (and still climbing). It became the reigning king of mass media content for the year—surpassing the highest grossing movie of last year, “Spider-Man 3.”

This represents a dramatic sea change in consumers’ and clients’ choice regarding the type of media content that they prefer for their media rooms and home theaters. The ripple effects of this even reached the traditional movie theater business, where Advertising Age reported that owners of movie theaters reported the worst box office receipts for the month of October in 10 years.

Some directly attributed this to consumers staying home and playing “Halo 3.”

The year 2008 looks even stronger, and “Halo 3” is only part of the story of a packaged video game software business, which the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) predicts will reach $10 billion—more than all the movie ticket sales in 2007 (and that’s just software).

If you factor in hardware, accessories and online gaming, the estimates are $1 billion for 2008, according to DFC Intelligence.

While it is easy to focus on blockbusters like “Halo 3,” it is important to note that such games as “Madden NFL ‘08” have slowly sold 4.5 million copies and amassed $240 million in sales to date.

Other game console titles, like “FIFA ‘08,” “NCAA Football ‘08,” and “Tiger Woods PGA Tour ‘08” each sold over a million copies in 2007, which equates to an additional $60 million for each title.

Moving to hardware, the CEA cites that the number one planned gift for the past 2007 holiday season was a video game system and that the most desired gift was also a video game system.

That means that a large number of custom installation customers received game consoles as gifts and might be looking for a professional installer to properly install and integrate it into their current media system and or home theater rooms.

With the PlayStation 3’s (PS3) new aggressive pricing of $399 for the basic 40-GB model with Blu-ray built in, integrators will likely see more requests to integrate it into media installations. There also will be many customers who will want both an Xbox 360 and a PS3 installed in order to take advantage of each platform’s respective strengths.

Not to leave out Nintendo, the Wii will continue to blaze a trail of success by appealing to casual gamers with its introduction of role playing games (RPGs) and shooter titles—as well as the Wii Balance Board and Wii Fit programs.

But look to Microsoft with games like “Scene It,” Sony’s new Eye camera and other applications that can sense body movement optically due to 120-Hz frame-rate capability to begin to segment, erode and gain momentum and market share in the casual game space from Nintendo.

Extension of Gaming

The ability of consoles to act as extenders from larger household systems and computers is always very appealing to custom installation professionals.

Products, like Niveus’s Edge extender, actually use an Xbox 360 system motherboard as its basis and then add silent operation and superior cooling capabilities. This year, integrators will have a truly high-end Vista Media Center extender that can produce 1080p video in a client’s bedroom or second media room.

In 2008, we will also see the introduction of IPTV-enabled Xbox 360s from AT&T’s U-verse fiber-to-the-home service that will marry all the features of an Xbox’s extension capabilities with the ability to watch TV and record shows in the background while also playing a game.

Not be left out, Sony will also be launching its own IPTV-enabled PS3 service in Japan. Additionally, the company is introducing an add-on USB dual HD/SD DVR tuner, called Play TV, in Europe that allows the PS3 to act as a DVR.

The PC gaming market will also continue to grow in the coming months as anticipated titles like “Crysis” and “Hellgate London” push the limits of DirectX 10 video game card GPUs with astonishing resolutions, 3-D detail and wickedly high frame rates.

Statement PC desktop gaming rigs from HP in the Blackbird 002 and Dell’s XPS line will become more popular this year to meet the challenge of these new demanding games.

The emergence of gaming laptops with HDMI connectors and high-end graphics cards, however, will grow even more rapidly. These gaming laptop customers and their late teen/college-aged children will want to have these machines integrated into existing media rooms, home theaters and high-end home office spaces.

Finally, despite a shaky start last year, Cross Platform PC and console gaming and game titles should begin to become more popular as Microsoft’s Live for Vista service is embraced by more users for on-the-road gaming that allows achievement points and messaging to be unified and shared with the existing Live 360 console service.