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Game Entrapment Hard Core Gamers Taking a Back Seat

Written by: Andy Marken

Article Overview: It seems so innocent, the way the video game developers suck you in. First it is an increasingly aggressive game system pricing (cheaper!). Then comes the rave reviews from "experts" and fun, exciting packaging...packages almost look wholesome and heroesque don't they? Then you begin the play. Casually for a few minutes at first. Then what they heck just an hour. Suddenly the sun is coming up. So you get another game or different version for your portable system or smartphone (just to stay sharp of course). Before we knew it our wife and daughter were beating us...regular! It is so humiliating. There goes all of the fun for another male bastion...sheess !!!

Game Entrapment Hard Core Gamers Taking a Back Seat

“Has there ever been anyone you couldn’t manipulate, beguile or seduce?” – Mac (Sean Connery), Entrapment (1999), 20th Century-Fox


There’s probably no industry that is more glamorous from the outside and tough on the body/mind on the inside than the game industry.

The Inside -- Back in the early days, young guys would be fed Twinkies and HoHos, sleep under their desks for days/weeks on end and hope that other guys liked their works when the software was introduced.

The outside – Buxomy babes, lots of libations, flashing light/laser beams, rock bands, lots of smoke and the hope that the overheated guys would like the games that flooded the market.

That’s the way in the ‘80s we introduced the Atari 7800, portable (darned sexy) Lynx, ST computers and Jaguar.

That’s the way Nintendo, Sega, Sony and MS introduced their systems and software.

It was simply the right thing to do…

After watching our daughter and wife play their Wii musical instruments, exercise with the system and do a little Dancing With the Stars we realized…more than guys play games!

Ok so we sorta, kinda knew it back in the Tramiel/Atari days but what the heck you couldn’t tell if the soldier or driver was male or female…just cubistic art.

Who cared as long as they bought.

As long as they played.

Back in the infancy days the total industry only accounted for a few hundred million bucks.

Today the market is huge and serious (Figure 2).

Despite (or perhaps because of) the anemic economy, the gaming industry appears to be hell-bent on fighting the tide again this holiday season with another record year!

In fact worldwide the hardware, software, online game industry will be close to $50 billion by the end of next year.

This holiday season all of the hardware/software players (Figure 3) are unleashing all of their guns…heavy promotion, aggressive pricing, fresh everyone games, aggressive pricing, multi-entertainment tools, online stuff, aggressive pricing…

Fighting to stay at the top of the adrenalin pile, action games like GTA (Grand Theft Auto), Gears of War, Call of Duty and MMOGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Games) like World of Warcraft still get most of the media attention.

You hardly notice that it’s the every person, every day non-testosterone games (Figure 4) that are racking up the sales with families and casual gamers (you know 95+% of the folks out there).

Check the Nintendo DS racing and math challenges featuring folks in their mid-20s.

Look at the top iPhone apps downloads – puzzles, arcade, strategy, flying/driving games

Normal folks are taking center stage.

There is no longer a stereotypical gamer.

The potential market has broadened –Gen X, Gen Y, boomers, post boomers, guys and…gals.

Games have become embedded into our daily cultural and social fabric.

Today:
- 65% of American households play computer and video games
- Video game hardware/software sales were up 28% in July of this year
- 87% have a video game console
- The average game player is 35 years old
- One out of four gamers is over age 50
- Women age 18 or older represent a significant portion of the game-playing population (40%) than boys 17 or younger (18%)
- 41% of Americans expect to purchase one or more games this year
- 94% of parents are present when games are purchased or rented
- 88% of parents always/sometimes monitor children’s game play
- Casual games will generate in excess of $2.25 bln this year
- Video games will generate $48.9 bln by 2011

Game hardware/software/play ecommerce is experiencing record growth this holiday.

Family interest in game play can be attributed to a number of very real factors:
- tight family budgets have forces families to spend less – and more carefully – on entertainment such as sporting events, theater tickets, weekend trips opting instead for staycations (stay at home vacations)
- because of outside stress, families to do what Faith Popcorn calls cocooning - coming home, locking out the world and bonding/sharing
- new family-oriented, interactive or friendly challenge games that anyone in the family can enjoy such as Wii Play, Music, Fitness
- Entertainment games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band have encouraged folks of all ages to turn off the TV and have fun no matter how much talent they have

The high visibility games are only the tip of the iceberg. The range of game types has gone well beyond the blow-em-up mayhem to games that are just plain fun that can be as simple or complex as the players want.

In addition to systems and software, more people are going online to play video games.

World of Warcraft is by far the leading MMOG for men and women, folks are discovering that online games are more fun (Figure 5) than most of the couch potato TV or YouTube stuff.

By 2012 DFC Intelligence forecasts that online game spending will grow from just under $7 billion to more than $13 billion.

In addition to the immensely popular Nintendo DS and just so-so Sony PSP, the new “big” screen portable entertainment devices from Apple and others (yes including the iPhone) have gotten even more people ponying up the bucks for games on the go (Figure 6).




Game play has grown because let’s face it the graphics are totally sophisticated, realistic, cool!

The new wave of games appeal to males/females, young and old (Figure 7).

Video gaming has become so popular across all ages that today players under 18 represent only one-quarter of the total audience.

Hardcorers look down their noses at games like The Sims saying they’re a waste of time, money and effort.

Yeah but…the game sold more than 100M copies!

Spore?

One million copies in three weeks.

It’s the casual gamers who have helped Nintendo eat Sony’s and Microsoft’s lunch.

Back in “the old” video game days no one thought about the differences between boys/girls, men/women.

It was strictly customers/non customers!

Pac-Man, Pokemon, Sonic, Tetris, Super Mario and hundreds of other successes and failures didn’t have a sexual preference.

The focus was on the game reviewers and hardcore gamers.

You know…geeky, teenage, socially awkward dude who spent hours locked in his darkened, musty bedroom.

And let’s be honest…the female gamers (young and old) was more difficult to quantify, tougher to reach, harder to win over.

Still are !

The early feminizing game efforts were busts (no Freudian slip meant!).

Didn’t build much of a following.

Mobile games, handheld games, casual game portals, casual MMOGs, online games and social games have finally given women (young and old) options.

And they’ve grabbed ahold (Figure 8)!

Wii helped women in general and moms in particular build demand for casual gaming.

Since guys are a little slow, female players told game developers what they wanted.

They like variety!

They move from sports to music to role playing to shoot-em ups to war games almost seamlessly.

They are much more comfortable with technology than in the Atari 7800 days.

Computers aren’t some geek guys’ domain.

The fun and fervor of the game seem to be easier for the female to work through because they synapses are somehow just wired better than the male’s.

It’s no wonder that 40+% of the gamers are female and their interest is growing across all age groups.

Whether it’s racing, puzzles, rhythm, adventure, strategy, MMOG or virtual world adventures the difference between male and female is seldom more than a few percentage points.

The new games and platforms give females in the family something they can grab onto, identify with and lots of times…dominate (Photo 1).

In times when budgets are tight, these gifts can be bought, given, used, enjoyed by everyone.

Guys aren’t always the sharpest pencils in the box but we know when mama’s happy…we’re happy.

After wiping the floor with us in Wii tennis, our wife looked us straight in the eye and calmly says, “Don’t use a cannon to kill a mosquito. Confucius.”

Gawd we hate Confucius.

And those girly games

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Article Tags: 20th century fox, atari 7800, dancing with the stars, entertainment tools, entrapment, flashing light, game industry, gaming industry, hundred million, infancy, laser beams, light laser, million bucks, rock bands, sean connery, software players, twinkies, what the heck, wii, young guys



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