Last year, retail video games outsold DVD and Blu-ray discs worldwide for the first time, according to a 2008 wrap-up and 2009 forecast by Media Control GfK International.

Video game sales were up to 53 percent of the media market in 2008, thanks in no small part to Nintendo’s Wii, which drove software sales up by 20 percent from 2007. GfK predicts that video games will take 59 percent of the market by the end of 2009.

In Italy and Spain, video games already reign in the home entertainment war, constituting for 67 percent of the market.

Meanwhile, DVD sales dropped by 4 percent, bringing overall DVD and Blu-ray sales down 6 percent from the previous year. The U.S. market played a major roll, with sales for these movie formats dropping by 8 percent.

All told, video game sales reached $32 billion and movie sales came out to $29 billion for DVD and Blu-ray. It should be noted that rentals are not included in the report.

GfK’s findings weren’t without precedent. Earlier this year, Verdict research predicted video game sales would be up 42 percent in the UK, and would surpass music, DVD, and Blu Ray disc sales.

Although they were almost correct, Steve Redmond of the Entertainment Retailer’s Association had a more accurate prediction, suggesting to CVG that games wouldn’t overtake all three other forms of retail electronic media.

Remond said Verdict Research’s report was overstated, and that "games will overtake video by the end of this year, but not music and video combined."