Hardcore Gamers Still Driving Games

Who says casual gamers are where it's at? Not IDG, that's for sure.

A lot of game creators watch casual gamers with hungry eyes in the belief that they represent a great, untapped resource, with many games being developed with them in mind. But a new report from US firm IDG seems to suggest that the mainstream is not where the money is - at least not yet.

Some of the hardcore crowd prove their mettle

In its annual report on the games industry, IDG found that more than half of all games are bought by two-fifths of the audience - the so-called devoted gamers who tick gaming as their main pastime.

Casual gamers buy roughly a tenth of the games sold today, despite making up nearly a third of the audience. The rest of the audience is made up of social gamers, who buy about a third of all games sold.

And it's the devoted and social gamers who will be responsible for the early success of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, according to IDG.

The company also said that it doesn't expect the real transition into the next hardware generation to be seen until the PlayStation 3 debuts next year, as more and more devoted and social gamers are buying more than one console.

IDG also warned that those publishers and hardware makers banking on casual gamers to jump to the next generation are in for a nasty surprise as this group will likely hold off buying a new console for a few more years:

"Executives who believe that enticing casual gamers to new machines is the secret to industry profit and market-share gains, [can't] expect widespread consumer adoption of new platforms until 2007."

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo Games