Interesting information was presented at indiegamer.com. There was a thread about market survey.
Here’s the results of the survey, and a few quotes:
For years, game developers and marketers have focused only on two types of videogame players: hardcore gamers and casual players. Recent analysis from a survey of nearly 2,000 U.S. online gamers by Dallas-based market research firm Parks Associates (Electronic Gaming in the Digital Home) indicates that the gamer community has diversified to include six distinct groups and, most importantly, a new middle market has emerged, all with different motivations, gaming behaviors, and spending patterns.
And the story continues:
Parks Associates identifies six segments:
* Power gamers represent 11 percent of the gamer market but account for 30 cents of every dollar spent on retail and online games.
* Social gamers enjoy gaming as a way to interact with friends.
* Leisure gamers spend 58 hours per month playing games but mainly on casual titles. Nevertheless they prefer challenging titles and show high interest in new gaming services.
* Dormant gamers love gaming but spend little time because of family, work, or school. They like to play with friends and family and prefer complex and challenging games.
* Incidental gamers lack motivation and play games mainly out of boredom. However, they spend more than 20 hours a month playing online games.
* Occasional gamers play puzzle, word, and board games almost exclusively.
I think the different categories are quite interesting – and show actually how important it is (in several markets) to have a game that’s fast to play. I can also see that games that you can play online together have a nice slice of 13%.
It’s great to see these kind of research being made.
Press release with more information is available here.
I started coding games when I was a small kid with access to Commodore 64.
