The NPD Group has just released a new report, "Online
Gaming 2008”, about the state of the gaming nation. According to their findings,
overall participation in gaming rose in 2007 over 2006, from 64 percent of the
population to 72 percent of the population.
In addition, it seems like the online gaming is becoming
more and more popular as more than half of the respondents say they play games
online.
Form January 11 to February 5, 2008 The NPD Group has
conducted an online survey of 20,240 NPD Consumer Panel members ages 2 and
older. Respondents age 2-12 were captured via surrogate reporting whereby the
female parent (age 21-55) brings her child to computer to answer questions,
either with or without parent’s assistance.
In order to qualify as online gamer, respondents had to use
one or more of the following systems to play games online: Nintendo DS/DS Lite
handheld system, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Sony PSP handheld
system, Xbox, Xbox 360 or PC. Gamers overall (whether online or offline) were
included in the study as well.
Despite recent views expressed by analysts and game makers
that the gaming console currently outperforms the PC platform, The NPD’s report
revealed that in fact the computers continue to be the driving force in online
gaming.
According to their findings, 90 percent of online gamers use
a PC to play games online, while only 19 percent claiming they use a video game
system (console or portable) and 3 percent claiming they use a cell phone.
In a news that will be well received at Microsoft’s headquarters,
the study concluded that among those who use a video game system for online
gaming, Xbox 360 is the top system used, with 50 percent stating they play
games online via that system. On
average, Xbox 360 owners spend the most time per week using their 360s to play
games online, followed by PC and PS3 owners using these respective systems for
online game play.
According to the report, 13 percent of online gamers spend
20 hours or more per week on online gaming.
Per platform, 33 percent of portable online gamers, 29 percent of
console online gamers and 13 percent of PC online gamers are in this heaviest
online gaming group.
“Despite the buzz in the industry regarding online gaming,
it is still relatively small compared to offline gaming,” said Anita Frazier,
industry analyst, The NPD Group. “There is still a large, untapped market for gaming
in general and online gaming in particular.”
