Surveys Bust Myths about Hardcore Gamers - A Different Way to Slice the Market
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Indeed, if a survey conducted by another company can be taken seriously (and it probably should be, given its sample size), at least some of those Nintendo purchases by older adults may have wound up as gifts to the kids and grand-kids. I'm talking about a huge report put out by the NPD Group. The report itself, released in September, runs to 100 pages, but it's easy to find boiled-down summaries online.
The NPD Group surveyed 16,670 participants between the ages of six and 44. Like the Parks Associates study, it divided gamers into six segments, but it used different criteria. NPD's study was more interested in the number and type of systems owned, whether or not the respondents were primary or secondary users of the systems, how frequently they used the systems, and the number of titles purchased or received. The point of the survey was to gain a better understanding of ownership and usage patterns within gamer segments, as well as specific platforms, titles, genres, and retailers.
NPD's six segments include heavy gamers, avid console gamers, mass market gamers, prefer portable gamers, secondary gamers, and infrequent gamers. Here's a surprise: the heavy gamers are the 18 to 34 year old males, right? In fact, close to half of this segment is between the ages of 6 and 17, and more than a fifth of them are female. Youthful gamers also made up about a third of NPD's "avid console gamers" group.
If you thought that Parks Associates' finding that power gamers make up only 11 percent of the total number of gamers was surprising, hold on to your hats. NPD found that heavy gamers make up only three percent of that number! Elaborating on this point, Anita Frazier, a spokeswoman for NPD, said that "Heavy gamers can be critical to a title or retailer's success since they are the market leaders, but focusing on this segment entirely is ignoring a much broader consumer base and larger revenue potential."
One other interesting surprise in the survey came when looking at the "prefer portable" group. If you've ever seen kids out with their parents in a grocery store or a restaurant, you've probably seen them passing the time focused on a portable game machine. In fact, one third of those in the "prefer portable" group are over the age of 18. If I had to guess, I'd suspect the newer portables that allow you to surf the Internet and watch video may be responsible for the wider appeal.
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