Middle Market In The Gaming Community Revealed By Survey

Knowing your market and knowing how to tap into them can very well make or break an industry. This seems to be the lesson that Parks Associates wants to impart to the game developers and marketers as they released the results on their US game market survey.

According to the results, the gaming community is not merely defined by black and white anymore. Whereas before, there only seems to be two types of videogame players: hardcore gamers and casual players, now, the gamer community has diversified to include six distinct groups, and most importantly, a new middle market has emerged, with all different motivations, gaming behaviors, and spending patterns.

More survey results after the jump.

Knowing your market and knowing how to tap into them can very well make or break an industry. This seems to be the lesson that Parks Associates wants to impart to the game developers and marketers as they released the results of their US game market survey.

According to the results, the gaming community is not merely defined by black and white anymore. Whereas before, there only seems to be two types of videogame players: hardcore gamers and casual players, now, the gamer community has diversified to include six distinct groups, and most importantly, a new middle market has emerged, with all different motivations, gaming behaviors, and spending patterns.

The six segments are:

• Power gamers represent 11 percent of the gamer market but account for 30 cents of every dollar spent on retail and online games.
• Social gamers enjoy gaming as a way to interact with friends.
• Leisure gamers spend 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 gamers love gaming but spend little time because of family, work, or school. They like to play with friends and family and prefer complex and challenging games.
• Incidental gamers lack motivation and play games mainly out of boredom. However, they spend more than 20 hours a month playing online games.
• Occasional gamers play puzzle, word, and board games almost exclusively.

Electronic Gaming in the Digital Home reveals that three of these segments, namely, Social Gamers, Leisure Gamers, and Dormant Gamers account for 53% of the Internet gamer population, and 56% of the retail avenue. The significance of this data is that, while they make up a majority of the bulk of the gaming community, they are, traditionally, ignored by the marketers. The implication then for the game developers and marketers is that, by continuing to ignore, or deny the existence of these segments, they are then, in effect, missing out on more than half of the market. Now, that’s not a very good thing to have.

Yuanzhe (Michael) Cai, Director of Broadband and Gaming, Parks Associates, surmises that reaching this untapped middle market represents a distinct challenge to marketers. He says, “If game companies insist on chasing the mythical hardcore and casual gamer segments, they will miss out on more than half of the market…The market is not black and white anymore, and game marketers need to understand these finer nuances.”

But what came out as the more surprising revelation from the study is that social interaction is important to a wide range of gamers, and not just to power gamers. “Social and leisure gamers may play simple, non-competitive games, but they want to play these games with friends and players they meet online,” Cai said. “For this type of gamer, there simply aren’t that many options.”

The gamer respondents for the survey were based on two key factors: time spent gaming and gamer motivation and attitudes.

Parks Associates is a market research and consulting firm focused on all product and service segments that are “digital” or provide connectivity within the home.