Interesting read

[Funkmasterr]

I thought some people might find this article interesting, I got it here.

The Nielsen Company—most well-known for its Nielsen Ratings, which measures the popularity of television shows—also monitors and analyzes videogame usage. How do they monitor video-game usage? We’re guessing some kind of Skynet-like system that will one day be the cause of the end of mankind, but however Nielsen gets its data, the company apparently has the ability to tabulate “actual gameplay metrics such as usage days, average session length, sessions per week,” and more.

So what does all of this console and PC gaming data tell them? First, that PS3 and Xbox 360 owners are more “engaged users,” playing more games and watching less television. In other words, hardcore gamers prefer PS3 and Xbox 360… we hope they didn’t spend too much money coming to that conclusion.

But Nielsen’s report did offer some surprising information as well, such as the fact that the console with the total minutes of usage is still the PS2, but that it’s on course to lose that top spot in a matter of months—to the Xbox 360 (if you were expecting it to be the Wii, remember this is based on actual usage, not the number of units sold).

Also interesting? The largest demographic of PC game players is now females, age 25 years and older. They account for 46.2% of all PC gamers, and 54.6% of gameplay minutes in December of last year. And the lists of the top PC games being played by men and women in the 25+ age group is almost identical, with World of Warcraft coming in at number seven for both. The three highest ranked games however—for both men and women—were all solitaire games, so the results might be a little skewed if you consider those free games to be time-killers instead of real gaming.

Nielsen’s final verdict? Gaming isn’t just for kids anymore! Sure—we’d like to make a joke about how people inside the industry have been saying that for countless years, but really we just hope parents and politicians will finally listen and understand that little fact for themselves. As for the Nielsen’s new State of the Video Gamer report? We’re all for anything that helps legitimize the videogame industry, and leads outsiders to have a better understanding of videogames in general. We look forward to what Nielsen’s next report can teach us.

[Aslanna]

Interesting indeed..

Nielsen's most recent study of video gamer habits was widely reported and made for great headlines in the gaming press this week. Too bad some key information in the report was wrong. After a follow-up with Gavin McMillan of Nielsen, I learned that the most important graph from the study was mislabeled.

McMillan confirmed via email that "the report labels are incorrect" in the original study. In January 2009 the correct usage minute percents were as follows: PlayStation 2: 23.7%, Wii: 20.7%, Xbox 360: 18.2%, PlayStation 3: 9.0%, Xbox: 7.9%, and GameCube: 3.3%.

As you can see from this revised data, Microsoft Xbox 360 did NOT defeat Nintendo Wii in the percentage of gaming time Americans spent on the respective systems in January 2009, as was reported by multiple outlets earlier this week. And Sony's PlayStation 3 didn't do nearly as badly as the original graph suggested.

Oh look Wii gets more usage than the 360. How can this be?! This is madness!

[Fash]

Makes a lot of sense with the units sold... PS3 is still pathetic, getting half the usage of the 360.