Recently, a consulting firm called Parks Associates released the results of a gaming study that divided gamers into 6 types: Power, Social, Leisure, Dormant, Incidental, and Occasional.
Power - These gamers represent 11 percent of the gamer market but account for 30 cents of every dollar spent on retail and online games. (Power gamers, I like that.)
Social - This group of gamers enjoy gaming as a way to interact with friends.
Leisure - These gamers spend about 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 - Dormant gamers love gaming but spend little time on it because of family, work or school. They like to play with friends and family and prefer complex and challenging games.
Incidental - This group lacks motivation and plays games mainly out of boredom. However, they spend more than 20 hours a month playing online games.
Occasional - These gamers play puzzle, word and board games almost exclusively.
By defining the type of gamers, Park Associates feels that game companies will be able to see the markets of gamers that have yet to be tap into finanically. Parks Associates said in a recent press release that Social gamers, Leisure gamers and Dormant gamers are traditionally ignored by marketers despite the fact they account for 56 percent of retail game sales and account for 53 percent of the Internet Gamer population.
Leisure gamers especially are a good market to start investing in, as they tend to spend 58 hours+/month gaming, but are only spending about $10 a month on games. So far Xbox Live seems to be the best idea directed at this group with its Xbox Live Arcade games which allow these players to play online casually. Though there is no fear of the gaming industry focusing solely on casual gaming, look for more puzzle, card and mobile games to be hitting the market soon.
So what kind of gamer are you?
[Via Gamespy]
Contest:
6:57 PM on 09.16.2006
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