This recent Nielsen data was released that reports the US game console usage by age over the period of April 2007 through February 2008.  Data shows the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 dominating the Wii in average usage per day in both demographics.  

Here is some additional data:

• The console household universe has grown 18.5% since fourth quarter 2004, compared to a 1.6% growth in the total universe of television households.  
• Two-thirds of all Men aged 18-34 have access to a video game console in their home.  
• The universe of connected console households (households subscribing to a service to connect their console to the internet) has grown to more then 4.4 million households, even before the newest Playstation 3 and Wii consoles are considered. 
• In the NTI (Nielsen Television Index) fourth quarter of 2006 (9/18/06-12/31/06), 93.8 million US Persons aged two and older used a video game console for at least one minute. 
• In any given minute, approximately 1.6 million US Persons aged two and older are using a video game console. 
• The heaviest console users accounted for 74.4% of all console usage and averaged 345 minutes (5 hours and 45 minutes) of usage per usage day during the fourth quarter of 2006. 

 
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Girls want to play video games.

But boys aren’t interested in making the games that girls want to play.

Those are the basic findings of a new study by researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas.

The analysts surveyed 43 mothers, along with 57 daughters between the ages of 7 and 20, in California, Colorado, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, Texas and Utah.

The study, “Serious Games for IM Generation Girls,” found that all of the girls and women surveyed had played computer or video games at some point, but only three-quarters were currently into games.

And while it sounds a little stereotypical, the researchers found that girls’ “interest in computer games that allowed them immersion into the virtual worlds of horses, weddings, fashion, and cars was very high.”

Gears of War, Manhunt 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4, in other words, are not on their shopping lists, but The Sims sure is.

You can read highlights of the report at http://citm.utdallas. edu/gfg/lg2007.pdf.

While female-centric games could add another billion dollars in revenue for the industry, the researchers said there are some obstacles:

• “The primary reason for the lack of success in computer games for girls is that most of the computer games do not address the interests or personalities of IM generation girls, especially past the age of 11.”

• “Many game programmers and artists do not want to work on ‘girl’ games or serious games.”

• “Those who are willing to try have an extremely difficult time thinking ‘girl.’ “

• “[Games for girls need] to be nonviolent with lots of role playing, age appropriate adventure, a peaceful buildup and a rewarding conclusion.”
  Male gamers weaned on Halo, Half-Life, Soldier of Fortune and F.E.A.R., may roll their eyes at these findings, but developers and publishers need to be more visionary.

While you occasionally see a Barbie Horse Adventures or Nancy Drew title slip into the best-selling games lists, these sorts of obviously female-centric games are few and far between.

The reason those games are rare is that the majority of developers are guys raised on hyperactive shooters, cloak-and-dagger role-playing games and chest-thumping sports titles.

Really the only famous and successful female developer that I know of is Roberta Williams, now retired, who helped create King’s Quest and other graphical adventure games more than a decade ago.

While there are other women working in the game development industry now, none has the clout of, say, John Carmack (Doom and Quake), Gabe Newell (Half-Life), Will Wright (The Sims), Cliff Bleszinski (Gears of War) or Shigeru Miyamoto (Mario).

In other words, there are no female developers out there right now who have the clout to singlehandedly push for and create games for girls.

The UTD researchers say they plan to do a much larger follow-up study to draft some guidelines for developers who want to jump into this market.

And I expect there will be a few, because $1 billion is a lot of motivation.

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Inspired by the previous post, I wondered how the DS vs PSP would compare when using Google Trends. Looks like there is more PSP search inquires, while DS leads in news references.

Bashar over at BlogAllAlong found this interesting data when he compared PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii, the following is the results.

Here is the regional breakdown:

Now for a detailed look at how the graph looks for console demand in the land of games, Japan:

Does this data surprise anyone?

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Prof. Dmitri Williams, one of the leading academics in the gaming space, who was an expert witness at the U.S. Senate on the constitutionality of game banning laws, held a roundtable on game addiction at GDC. Williams referenced Carnegie Mellon University A. Fleming Seay’s research on addiction in an MMO context.

The addiction, defined as “problematic use” by Seay, is when an entertainment product dominates and displaces other behavior,
causes conflict and not playing causes anxiety. Seay found that self regulation (self monitoring, self evaluation and self consequence) was difficult for certain people. This seems obvious, but like anything in academia, if somebody hasn’t done the research it isn’t legitimate. The other thing Seay found was people’s affinity for a game caused their problematic use — but the interesting part was that those with “problematic use” were those who didn’t like the game they were playing. They would do the same actions over and over again, didn’t find pleasure in their actions and got stuck in a rut.

Williams thinks now is a the time to start looking into the ideas of “gaming addiction” and “problematic use” before it gains traction. He says, “Coming up with a solution to that, is better than sitting in front of Congress in ten years.”

[via joystiq]