PricewaterhouseCoopers Predicted:

Console games, the largest category, will grow by 6.9 percent annually, from $24.9 billion last year to $34.7 billion in 2012.

Online and wireless games will grow the fastest at 16.9 percent and 19 percent, respectively. Online will jump from $6.6 billion last year to $14.4 billion in 2012, while wireless games go from $5.6 billion to $13.5 billion in the same frame.

Just behind those is the emerging video game advertising sector, which will go from the $1 billion level in 2007 to $2.3 billion in 2012, a 16.7 percent annual growth rate.

“That’s phenomenal growth,” said PwC partner Stefanie Kane — especially considering that in-game advertising only works with certain kinds of games, sports being a primary example.

As has been the case, PC games are the laggards. That sector will fall 1.2 percent a year from 2007’s $3.8 billion to $3.6 billion in 2012.

The U.S. also will lag a bit compared with global growth, with overall video game revenue growing by 7.9 percent annually, from $12.1 billion in 2007 to $17.7 billion in 2012.

As of the end of 2007 in the U.S., there was an installed base of 9 million Xbox 360 consoles, which Microsoft launched in November 2005. That was followed in the next-generation category by 7 million for Nintendo’s Wii and 3 million for PlayStation 3, both of which were introduced in November 2006.