Video game industry to be worth over $26 billion this year?

A prediction from the IDC (International Data Corporation) who does market research for a variety of industries, released a prediction that by the end of this year the worldwide revenue of the video game industry will total $26.6 billion by the end of this year. With two new console releases and an increase in the price of software makes the prediction less than surprising. Just for reference data from the NPD cites that the North American revenue for 2005 was $10.5 billion alone. Looking out in the distance the IDC predicts that by 2010 the entire industry will be worth a cool $33.4 billion. That averages to about a 6% growth rate per year.