Martin Olausson, Strategy Analytics:

Opportunities for other emerging niche genres: What sets games like Guitar Hero or SingStar apart from other games, in our opinion, is not necessarily the fact that they are music-related -- rather, it is because they have a distinct social element to them that drives user engagement and involvement not only for the people playing the game but also from the onlookers.

This means that these types of games become core to a social gathering, and people even organize things like Guitar Hero and SingStar parties.

The other factors that has been paramount in driving the success of these games is increased simplicity, combined with a higher level of physical involvement. These are the same central elements that have been fundamental in driving the phenomenal success of the Nintendo Wii and have engaged whole new segments of gamers.

Even models love SingStar!

What will be the next Guitar Hero-style phenomenon: We expect to see much more games that build on the core elements of simplicity and physical engagement in the next years.

Specific genres are really only limited to the creative genius of the developers, but we anticipate more games that build on the success of Guitar Hero in the music genre and also more games that simplify and increase physical engagement in the sports genre.