at Next Gen
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Magazine publisher IDG has released its annual 'industry white paper' data on spending habits of U.S gamers.
The report says active gamers can be segmented into three categories: devoted, social and casual gamers. Devoted gamers, who count game-playing as their primary activity, make up 41% of the total gaming audience and are responsible for 52% of the dollars spent on video games and systems.
Social gamers represent 35% of spending while casual gamers represent 28% of the gaming audience but only 13% of dollars spent.
The report says devoted gamers will drive sales of new systems in 2005 and 2006 with more than half of them likely to buy a PlayStation 3 and over 45% planning to buy Xbox 360 within the first year of release for each system.
The report goes on to warn. "Executives who believe that enticing casual gamers to new machines is the secret to industry profit and market-share gains, [cannot] expect widespread consumer adoption of new platforms until 2007."
"This console cycle will be distinctively different from previous transitions," said Daniel Orum, president of, IDG's Entertainment division. "Our research indicates that dual console ownership is much more prevalent for the devoted and social gamer segments which means the real hardware transition won't occur until PS3 launches next year. That said, with over 50 million current generation consoles in the market, a very robust environment exists for ongoing development of software titles, which was not the case in previous hardware transitions."
IDG Entertainment publishes GamePro magazine among other products.
=====================
A sort of vindication for folks who know that hardcore gamers like us are the people that game companies should be making games for.
===============
Magazine publisher IDG has released its annual 'industry white paper' data on spending habits of U.S gamers.
The report says active gamers can be segmented into three categories: devoted, social and casual gamers. Devoted gamers, who count game-playing as their primary activity, make up 41% of the total gaming audience and are responsible for 52% of the dollars spent on video games and systems.
Social gamers represent 35% of spending while casual gamers represent 28% of the gaming audience but only 13% of dollars spent.
The report says devoted gamers will drive sales of new systems in 2005 and 2006 with more than half of them likely to buy a PlayStation 3 and over 45% planning to buy Xbox 360 within the first year of release for each system.
The report goes on to warn. "Executives who believe that enticing casual gamers to new machines is the secret to industry profit and market-share gains, [cannot] expect widespread consumer adoption of new platforms until 2007."
"This console cycle will be distinctively different from previous transitions," said Daniel Orum, president of, IDG's Entertainment division. "Our research indicates that dual console ownership is much more prevalent for the devoted and social gamer segments which means the real hardware transition won't occur until PS3 launches next year. That said, with over 50 million current generation consoles in the market, a very robust environment exists for ongoing development of software titles, which was not the case in previous hardware transitions."
IDG Entertainment publishes GamePro magazine among other products.
=====================
A sort of vindication for folks who know that hardcore gamers like us are the people that game companies should be making games for.
