Gamertell

Nielson Media, the company responsible for the rating system that is the standard for judging TV viewership, released a report today (July 26, 2007) analyzing the gaming industry. The Nielson GamePlay Metrics studied aspects of the people’s gaming habits including games played, console or PC used, amount of time per day and time per session, to list only a few factors.

The report also looked at the family and individual player’s demographics, with results that suggests that, though it is the least expensive next-gen console on the market, Nintendo’s Wii is more commonly played in households with an annual income of greater than $100,000.

Another finding that may surprise the gaming layperson is that Sony’s Playstation 2 is reported to be the most played console in June 2007. Among the 33,000 respondants, 42% of the total time spent playing video games was done on the PS2.

Microsoft’s original Xbox and Xbox360 were played the second and third most often capturing 17% and 8% of the share of play time respectively. The Nielson Media article also reported that the average amount of time spent during each gaming session was 62 minutes for June 2007.

It will be interesting to see how this nformation will be used in the gaming industry. It will surely impact in-game advertisements but to what extent we can’t be sure. Maybe in the future we won’t have to look at three in-game body spray billboards in a row… as if three of those would be lined up along the Las Vegas strip.

Site [Nielson Media] Read [Gamespot]