There's all the usual culprits in there (the titles that, year after year, demand huge wads of your hard-earned cash) - from the latest Call of Duty and Gears of War instalments, right through to football franchise updates for the PES and FIFA series.

In fact what is most noticeable about the list is that pretty much all of the big names are the latest editions of long-running franchises, and that little in the way of new or original titles are competing with the big blockbuster names in this period. This is perhaps unsurprising owing to the fact that publishers understand that gamers wallets have only finite resources, and that it's hard to get adequate attention for something new in this release window (those more original releases will usually be held for February/March when there is a little more space for them to get the critical attention and word of mouth that they need in order to become the next big franchise).

So, in the meantime, feast your eyes on the screenshots that evidence the current state of play with most of modern video-gaming's top franchises this autumn; marvel once more at the financial superiority of the computer game franchise revenue model that just keeps on giving and giving, as opposed to the Hollywood franchise that is usually exhausted by the fourth or fifth instalments (that is why the intersections of the two industries are proving so interesting these days, as discussed in some of our older posts on here). Ultimately though, at a time like this, the only important question becomes: how can I justify getting both an Xbox and a PS3?

Let me give you a few figures:

'Indiana Jones 4' UK box office TOTAL:  £48m

'Michael Jackson This is It' documentary UK box office TOTAL (so far): £5m '

The Dark Knight' UK box office TOTAL: £54m

'Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2' UK gross FROM LESS THAN A WEEK AFTER RELEASE: £47m...

Now clearly we've all been banging on for some time about how huge the video gaming industry is, how much it's worth etc etc. But the thing is that it hasn't really permeated to any great extent into the public consciousness because, even with the success of GTA 4, it was always felt that aside from the odd exception games could never do the kind of figures we see from the super-hit blockbusters.

Well no longer is this the case, for the new COD represents in effect the video game industry's Titanic (the film not the actual ship) - in essence such a runaway financial monster hit that the media will inevitably shine a spotlight once again on the whole topic, and a few more eyebrows will be raised in a 'huh? but i thought games were a niche past-time of a few teenage geeks?' kind of way, before giving way to the realisation that gaming is right up there as an entertainment industry with the long-established giant of cinema.

Whatsmore it is interesting to observe how the gaming sector is following many of the trends evident in the film industry in recent years - for example the divergence between varying modes of production, and markets. What I mean by this is that while the runaway monster productions such as COD and GTA resemble the franchise film-making models recently reinvigorated by Hollywood (Indiana Jones, Die Hard, Batman etc) so too the vast improvements in software and hardware availability means that there is quite a considerable (but financially smaller) sector of DIY independent games being made and distributed either for free, or for only a few dollars/pounds.

The parallels could continue, but really what interests me most in relation to this topic is the question of how big games will become in coming years. After all, cinema audiences have dwindled massively since the post WWII peak years, though of course we still watch plenty of films, though now on a variety of formats. Of course film is huge in every sense, be it culturally, economically or whatever. But it is time to really acknowledge not only that video games are now representing a consistent rival (or partner as is far more often the case - just look at crossovers such as video games adapted to film, or the even more common, films adapted into games), and that it is not inconceivable that in another 10 or 20 years, gaming might completely dwarf cinema/film as both an industry - and a pastime. Seems far fetched maybe, but not so if one considers the statistical trends evident in recent years. Only time will tell...

Dejan Levi