Relenting on the Parks Report

When I first commented on the Parks Associates report on videogames (Electronic Gaming in the Digital Home), I was slightly mean spirited. However, Michael Cai from the company was on my panel at GDC this year, and managed to change my mind the moment he characterised the work as a "consumer study, not an player study." Furthermore, seeing the data his team has pulled up is really quite interesting.

For instance, their Power Gamer segment (arguably equivalent to the classic "Hardcore" player) is responsible for $3,263.3 million in the US market, and their Dormant Gamer segment (arguably representing players who no longer have the time to be "Hardcore" owing to changes in their lives) is responsible for $2,240.2 million - almost 70% extra on top of the core spend is there for players needing games structured around shorter play sessions, and less long-term grinding. This speaks well of the market prospects for Reluctant Hero, as a specific example.

So my apologies to Parks Associates - I misjudged you. I look forward to more reports in the future.

Comments

[Patrick]

Hey, could you e-mail me an audio of that panel? It slipped completely under my radar at the conference, and I'd be really interested to hear it.

[Chris]

I don't have the audio to give you, alas - it was part of the tutorials, so I'm not even sure if its available. As you were a speaker, don't you get five free session recordings? Just look and see if any of Nicole's tutorial on Monday is available from the GDC site. My panel was the second slot.