Competition within the video game industry is expected to be fiercer than ever over the next 5 years but no single company will grab the whole market, researchers say.

The game console market will generate an excess of $66 billion in revenues by 2012 Jupiter Research said on Tuesday. The market research firm also believes the competitive field will be much closer than in the past.

Each platform supplier brings a special set of strengths to the market and to competition in current generation of systems, said Michael Gartenberg, Vice President and Research Director at JupiterResearch.

On top of that we have seen a dramatic rise in the proportion multiplatform releases from independent publishers over previous generations. This is no longer the winner-takes-all market of the past.

Console market revenue growth will reach a high of $12.8 billion in 2007 when new platform sales are strongest. And, in 2008 JupiterResearch expects US household penetration to surpass the 50 percent mark.

Over the last five years the market has steadily added a small number of additional households, said David Schatsky, President of JupiterResearch. That the industry has continued to sustain growth-despite reaching such high levels-is a testament to the continued innovation by software producers and hardware manufacturers.

In the first five months of the year, Nintendo has walked away as the winner with its popular Wii game console. The Wii sold 1.73 million Wiis in the United States, according to market researcher NPD Group. Microsoft has sold 1 million Xbox 360s and Sony has sold 665,000 PS3s.

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