Study: Gamers Are Gluttons for Music
Those who spend hours playing video games also are big consumers of
music and audio devices, IDC says.
Paul Roberts, IDG News Service
Thursday, March 17, 2005
Care for an MP3 with that frag? Companies that want to boost sales of
music and portable music players should consider marketing to a
growing, but untapped audience--hard-core gamers--according to the
results of a survey by IDC and IGN Entertainment.
Gamers are spending hours each week playing computer games, but are
also big consumers of music and audio devices, the survey of more than
6000 gamers found. However, rather than trying to pry gamers away from
the warm glow of their LCD screens to go see a show, the music
industry should look for ways to integrate music with video games,
such as tying audio devices and services into games or marketing
online music and gaming services together, according to an IDC report.
The Web-based surveys were conducted in the August 2004 through gaming
Web sites like GameSpy.com, TeamXbox.com, and other game community
sites and online forums. IDC and IGN asked gamers about their gaming
and music listening habits.
The bulk of respondents reported spending between four and 20 hours a
week playing video games. The biggest group, almost 20 percent, said
they spent between six and 10 hours a week gaming.
Let the Music Play
Despite spending an inordinate amount of time playing video games,
serious gamers said they were not immune to the sound of the lyre.
Almost 35 percent of those responding to the survey reported owning
between 100 and 299 music CDs. Sixteen percent said they owned 300 to
499 CDs, according to the published report, IDC said.
That's encouraging news for music publishers, who have been fighting
flat sales of CDs and music singles in recent years. But the folks
managing heartthrob Justin Timberlake should think twice before
streaming his latest single to the World of Warcraft set: 93 percent
of those who took the survey were male, cementing the reputation of
the "serious gamer demographic" as an all-boys club, IDC said.
Gamers are a tech-savvy bunch and ready adopters of digital music and
digital music players, the survey found. Eighty-three percent said
that they had music stored on PCs in their household, with 23 percent
saying they had 1000 or more songs stored on their PCs. However, few
of those responding, just over 16 percent, said they used a paid
online music service such as Apple Computer's ITunes Music Service,
suggesting that ripping CDs and downloading music from free online
services is a common way for gamers to obtain digital versions of
music.
Advice for Businesses
Companies, such as Apple, that are looking to expand their market
should consider partnering with gaming companies. Online music
services could also be linked to subscription-based online gaming
services like Xbox Live, or massively multiplayer online role playing
games (MMORPGs) like EverQuest, whose users are already accustomed to
using and paying for online services, IDC concluded.
For companies like Nokia that are chasing the "killer app" that
combines portable gaming and music, the path is less clear. The gamers
surveyed had only lukewarm interest in playing games on MP3 music
players. To be successful in the market for combined gaming-music
players, companies should position their devices to be clearly one
thing or the other--for example, an iTunes with limited gaming
functionality as a distant second feature, IDC recommended.
IDC's report, "3Q04 Gamer Survey: Digital Audio Technologies and the
Gamer," is the latest in a series of studies focused on the gaming
industry. A summary of the report is available online.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,120081,tk,dn031705X,00.asp
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"No man is truthful. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth."
-- Oscar Wilde
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