Driven by console sales, the video game market is, in Reunion as everywhere else, perpetually bubbling and growing. Physical sales, which remain the majority compared to digital sales, are mainly done in supermarkets. The dynamic is maintained by the number one distributor in the video game ecosystem, locally and nationally : Innelec Multimedia. These are all opportunities to seize for mass distribution and specialized stores., especially since Innelec is renewing its own brand of accessories, Konix, This year.
If certain brands have understood the phenomenon of video games and the appeal product that it represents for the multimedia and cultural department, others should pay more attention to it, in view of the figures put forward by the main physical supplier in the sector, Innelec Multimedia. Between consoles (Sony PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Xbox), gaming accessories (segment where Innelec shines with its own brand, Konix) and software from game publishers, the distributor achieved 145 million euros in turnover nationally (+20% over one year, Turnover published at the end of December 2023), including 18 million in Reunion. Innelec estimates the Reunion market for this ecosystem (all products combined and physical and digital sales included) at around 30 million euros per year! Digital sales – the path in which Reunionese video game publishing is developing – has more than doubled in six years and is now approaching 50% of the market.. After a period of decline following the health crisis, the video game market is on the rise again. Results for 2023, with +28,5% sales, far exceed those of the record year of 2018. Console sales, which cost several hundred euros, are the driving force of the market. On their own, they represent around half of the ecosystem’s turnover. In Reunion alone, 15,000 consoles were sold in 2023. Gabriel Fougerouse, development manager of Innelec for the Indian Ocean, predicts a “very dynamic new year” in 2024, including rumors about Nintendo launching its new Switch console (Switch 2) and by Sony from the PS5 Pro.
A flagship product for the IT department
“We are in a universe whose news is permanent and which adapts to all expectations. Ten new games released every week! This is why stores need specialized and targeted support from professionals, like Innelec Multimedia, who know this market to navigate it. This is our role”, explains Gabriel Fougerouse. The typology of players is also important in attracting a flow of regular consumers with known profiles to supermarkets.. This typology is the same in Reunion as in mainland France with, now, two generations of players. The audience for video games begins with children who consume educational games. Then comes adolescence, where the game sometimes takes on an addictive character. This taste for play extends into adulthood with adolescents. Women play as much as men. Inflation has not curbed the appetite for new products as shown by the good scores of the supermarket department during the last two months of 2023 and during the Black Friday sales.. “The video game department, to the constantly renewing offer, constantly attracts customers. For this reason, it is also a flagship product for the entire IT department”, observes Gabriel Fougerouse.
Innelec has professionalized the market
The Innelec company, who celebrated his 40th birthday last year, has been established in Reunion for thirty years. Reunion and the Antilles are the historic commercial establishments outside mainland France (see box). Suffice to say that this distributor built the Reunion video game market, of which he is the main supplier. It is thanks to Innelec if the local market has even become, proportionally, one of the most dynamic in France, representing 1,3% of the national market. In addition to the distribution of consoles and games, Innelec has its own brand, Konix, gaming accessories : console covers, gaming headsets, controller chargers, keyboards, mouse, gaming chairs, etc. Konix positions itself in fourth place in the segment, immediately behind the American and Japanese giants of the sector. Hence the importance of, locally and nationally, the double shift that the company is taking to remain a leader. Digital shift and pop culture licensing shift.
The new horizons of gaming
Konix rethinks its offer in 2024 (new logo, new concept and many new products). Series, video games, video on demand, movie theater, digital phenomena, science-fiction, manga… The identity markers of the new generation are no longer, or more only, the brands themselves. Names and characters from pop culture are now displayed. By announcing new Konix products exclusively, Innelec surfs on new trends. Partner of the French Football Federation and PSG; Konix launches as Euro 2024 approaches, which takes place in June, a specific range for football game aficionados (number two in video game sales). “We are also going to offer a range featuring Hello Kitty, world number two in derivative products, already very popular in Reunion. » The success of Hello Kitty is such that Innelec is targeting other departments and especially other brands with this license : decoration and lighting brands, of toys, sports too, where Innelec will propose to create e-sports gaming departments. The share of digital in video game sales also leads Innelec to evolve its model and support resellers, in Reunion as in mainland France, towards phygital, this mix between physical store and e-commerce.
THE REUNION VIDEO GAME
“Reunion video games are exploding”, testifies Gabriel Fougerouse. This is another great characteristic of the video game market : independent game publishers gain market share every year. In Reunion as elsewhere. The local edition is currently specialized in mobile games on smartphones and its sales are exclusively digital.. But there is no doubt that with future developments (Rubika school campus, Territorial center for image and sound industries), part of the future of the local market belongs to it.
INNELEC AND REUNION
There are four of them, with Gabriel Fougerouse, to compose the Innelec Indian Ocean team more, Réunion is the only region where Innelec does not just distribute, but ensures the merchandising of gaming products in mass distribution. This guarantees stores and their customers the arrival and implementation of new products as quickly as possible after their release..
Read also on leaderreunion.fr : " Video game : Reunion wants to win its game” (Leader Réunion no 229, February 2024) ; The meeting, leading actress of French animated cinema” (Leader Réunion no 230, mars 2004).
