UK survey reveals massive gaming growth

you gotta thank Bungie and there Halo Franchise for bringing up the gaming industry back!!!

wow a loss of 390 million and 130 million they say it as tough its nothing !! with the current financial climate you would think company's would be more cautious on what games they develop !! fair play to Nintendo !! just show you don't need a hardcore fan base to make money !! now look . . Xbox and PlayStation want in on motion sensing and casual gaming !!!!

With the increase in casual game popularity, and with platforms such as the iPhone and Andriod gaining a strong foothold I think the traditional game types (of which Halo is one) need to consider a bit of a revamp. One recent game that appealed to hardcore gamers that saw a positive change was Left 4 Dead. A complete Left 4 Dead game can be played in less that 2 hours and that includes a climactic end sequence. It is also very social and is focussed around strong cooperative game play. The fact that the episodes are very cinematic and the feel is very much like that of a movie also makes it very attractive. I believe that the more hard-core games need to move toward a more rich theatrical, story and participation based system. Keep the action moving and give the player an opportunity to complete the story in 2 hours. Then to keep the player coming back, add additional episodes or use dynamic game engines that are able to change up the action in a game so that each time the game is played it is different.

Video games are fun and all but there is so much more out there that is richer and more rewarding.

@ F4tC0bra yh but most people keep the radio on when driving........thats a ton of hours right there. this survey might be unfair........like i play 5 hours a day in holidays but when im at university i dont play because i dont have a tv and im not bringing my ps3 so i can fail. so how would i work out my average hours? im sure people didnt sit there making calculations.

i find it surprising that more people listen to the radio than play games.. :P

video games are awesome. i play it every day.

i play every night before sleep!!! it is the best addiction ever create by the man!!! WHO IS WITH ME!!!??

I work full time and I play my ps3 everyday lol

kiddies, please remember that 5 hrs a week for someone who works full time and has a family etc is a fair chunk of time

Casual gaming worries me.... One day, hardcore games might not be profitable enough to make....

Cheap console, family friendly, ideal for a kids Xmas gift (PS3/Xbox usually too expensive), mass appeal to females & old people = mega profit.

only thing surprising is how Nintenso is still making that much of a profit

Until the developing world can finally become developed, gaming won't reach to "classic" level as okassar has pointed out. Gaming of that calibre would be considered a luxury.

haha, i dunno how 5 hours a week is impressive.

Am I supposed to be surprised by this article,cuz I'm really not. Gaming will keep growing EXPONENTIALLY until it's solidified in world culture,which it hasn't yet,it hasn't reached the "classic" level that music took thousands of years to achieve.

Cant believe only five hours!!!! I play that much in one day on the weekend.

Only 5 hours a week?? What nonsense!

I have an Xbox 360, and I'm ashamed to say this but I've played more often than I like to...

FACT :90% OF XBOX360 BOUGHT R PLAYED REGULARLY 90% OF PS3 BOUGHT R PLAYED REGULARLY 70% OF WII BOUGHT R PLAYED REGULARLY just shows you how bad the wii is haha and how many 5 year old got it for Christmas played it for Christmas and den sold it the next Christmas(or tried to sell it )

I've heard this phrase: "There are lies, damn lies and statistics."

not another statistical servey! 99.9% of gamers say stuff the statistical serveys!

Uh yeah StuDevo. I was actually being completely sarcastic with that comment by the way.

@FF_fan2004 The only figure lagging behind the US in the UK was the casual gaming on facebook and myspace. Which isnt really gaming. Maybe you need to read the article again

Well gaming is addicting especially in my case. lol

I wouldn't be surprised if women outnumber men in social gaming. Lambrini girls just want to have fun! No seriously, games like sports resort, buzz, singstar etc are brilliant for casual gaming before you go out to town clubbing and parties. After quite a few shots of vodka, it's a lot more fun to play these games as a social thing. I should know, a few of my friends and flatmates have all done it.

solitaire does not count

After reading it again, I'm not surprised that UK is lagging behind US. a) US is bigger than UK b) US has more population distribution than UK c) You can't really just survey that many people in the UK and say that "here it is, there are more gamers in UK". I won't bash the US gamers as I'm going to go PC on this.

@Darkman2007 I quite agree with you. A few customers told me that they had the Wii just for the Wii sports and Wii fitness. And they're not into games at all.

The PSP owns the IPhone; game-wise.

yay for the Brits :)

i thought that to weak graphs, and yea aint gaming bigger than movie industry in terms of sales projected etc,that and kids getting lazier by the decade, thats a fact to, where like obese fat americans, soon enough hence goverment issued a under 18's obesity plan end of 2008.

What terrible graphs

Go wii gooooooooo

Go Apple.. Wonder if their next AppleTV might be a games console as well? Oink

Wow.