The Real Game Changers are the Gamers Themselves

I was lucky enough to have been involved in a project called The New America--a partnership between the US Census Bureau, Adweek, and Draftfcb. Because of my work with Electronic Arts, I was asked to write a piece on how the changing American consumer has impacted the gaming industry. With the ubiquity of gaming devices, and the fact that gamer behavior is impacting the way games are made more now than ever (hello, new Mass Effect 3 ending!) I decided to explore how gamer behavior changes across platforms as a means to provide a framework for how to innovate within the industry.

Americans are playing games more than ever on a growing list of technological devices. According to the Entertainment Software Association, at least one individual in 72 percent of American households plays computer or video games. Add that to the gaming capabilities of smartphones that about 50 percent of Americans carry in their pockets and you’ve got a form of entertainment nearly as ubiquitous as television.

But not all gaming experiences are created equal in the eyes of today’s gamers. From mobile and social to console and PC, consumer behaviors change drastically with the platform. Even different mobile operating systems report differences in use. Last year, iPhone users averaged 14.7 hours of play per month compared to Android’s 9.3 hours, according to Nielsen. Maintaining a foothold in this rapidly growing industry requires an understanding of how today’s Americans are choosing to play.

Read the full article here.