50+ Women: A Significant Gamer Market
In Second Life, I am an ageless female avatar, young enough to be open and adventurous, old enough to know better, but not too old to do it anyway. In real life, I don’t exist in the marketing plans of most game companies because I’m over 50 (just barely, but it’s still a fact). Now I know just how many of us there are out there, at least in the United States:
The Entertainment Software Association reported last week that 40% of all U.S. gamers are women, and 26% of all U.S. gamers are women over age 50. Also contrary to what i see in my local video stores, 85% of the games sold in the U.S. were rated ‘T’ or milder, and only 15% rated ‘M.’ (So, why are about half of the games at my allegedly family-oriented video store rated M??)
The ESA report also the average gamer is getting older, now up to 35. How will this affect the market and kinds of games out there? I do see a change in some marketing strategies, like TV commercials that show women using the Nintendo DS and the Wii. I’d be curious to hear what the rest of you think.
July 19th, 2008 • 
Evansmom Goodspeed • 
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comment | July 20, 2008 at 10:02 | individual comment-link
Games have already switched to an older audience on the 360 and PS3. Nintendo is the primary company making more (mostly?) family-oriented games with Mario and physically active games.
pingback | July 24, 2008 at 07:42 | individual pingback-link
[...] tat-ridden babes? After fellow VTOR author Evansmom’s post a couple days ago about 50+ female gamers being a significant market, I’m curious how many of these gamers will find this type of notice compelling to dial up [...]