Gamers Are Spending 700 Dollars a Year on Games, Says New IGN Entertainment Study; Editorial Reviews and Word-of-Mouth Major Factors in Purchase Decisions
March 28, 2005 12:59 PM US Eastern Timezone
BRISBANE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 28, 2005--Video and computer game enthusiasts are spending 700 dollars a year on games software, according to a recent study conducted by IGN Entertainment, an Internet media company whose properties attract a monthly audience of more than 22 million, with the 18 - 34 year old males demographic at its core. While 90 percent of the consumers studied still purchase titles at brick and mortar stores, nearly one-third report they are now also regularly purchasing products online.
IGN's study, which profiled more than 5,000 consumers frequenting the IGN.com and GameSpy.com properties, found consumers:
-- Spend more than $700 a year: $341 on console titles, $233 on PC games and another $140 for accessories.
-- Play games an average of 20 hours a week; ten percent spend 40 plus hours a week.
-- Influence others. Respondents say they advise 5 - 6 people per month, on average about computer, console or game-related purchases.
-- More than 90 percent of survey respondents were male.
Reviews, Word-of-Mouth Most Influential
When it comes to buying video game titles, consumers make their purchase decisions based on game reviews and media such as trailers, screenshots and demos.
-- Game buyers do a great deal of research online on titles they are thinking about purchasing.
-- Reviews are influential. Twenty-five percent say they are most heavily influenced by what game writers say about titles they are considering.
-- Review scores and word-of-mouth about the game are the next most important, followed by game demos.
-- Few respondents choose their games based on the publisher or developer.
-- Publishers' websites and print advertising were the lowest ranked factors.
Online Buyers Make More Frequent Purchases
Consumers who buy online make more frequent purchases. IGN's survey found that:
-- Consumers who buy from online stores make purchases an average of five times per month.
-- Those who prefer to shop brick and mortar stores make purchases an average of just over three times per month.
They usually play multiple types of games. Almost 80 percent of respondents purchase Action games; 72 percent buy RPG games and 70 percent FPS titles. Large percentages also play Adventure games, Fighting games, RTS, Strategy and War games.
Renting Games Provide Opportunity for Trial, Often Leads to Purchase
Video game rentals are a popular way for gamers to decide if they want to invest the money to own a title.
-- More than 50 percent of the respondents rent video games, on average about 11 games per month.
-- More than 60 percent of those who rent games say they eventually purchase the title they rented.
For PC games, avid gamers rate Best Buy, Electronics Boutique and Wal-Mart as their favorite offline retail outlets. For console games, they prefer Electronics Boutique, GameStop and Best Buy. For accessories gamers prefer Best Buy, Walmart.com and Electronics Boutique.
The top e-tailers for PC games are Walmart.com, Amazon.com and EBGames.com. For console games, they name Amazon.com, EBGames.com and Ebay/Half.com. Gamers like Walmart.com, Ebay/Half.com and Amazon.com for accessories. The top reason for shopping in a specific location store or site was, "The store's price, relative to other stores."
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Junior Sonybot in training
(03-28-2005, 07:48 PM)
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#6
This year I've bought:
-Wario World -Fable -Blinx 2 -World Soccer: Winning Eleven 8 -Resident Evil 4 -Donkey Kong Jungle Beat -Sphinx and the Cursed Mummy -Otogi -Guilty Gear X2 #Reload -Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life -Animal Crossing Total price: (not including store credit) About $20. Gamestop's store credit is fun to use, if you don't mind trading in everything. Last edited by Speevy : 03-28-2005 at 07:52 PM. |
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Adventures in Sophistry
(03-28-2005, 07:57 PM)
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#11
Originally Posted by DarienA:
Didn't IGN get the news? PC GAMING IS DOOMED! Oh wait ... people who say that are entirely wrong. (Looks directly at Jarrod) |
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Scary Euro Man
(03-28-2005, 08:03 PM)
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#13
Originally Posted by DarienA:
To be fair, it's a pretty freakish month for me (you may not have the same excuse) - DS' UK launch, an import PSP and a Tapwave Zodiac pretty much make up the $700, with games for the first two of those making up the rest (and a healthy surplus). |
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Sucks at viral marketing
(03-28-2005, 08:04 PM)
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#14
Originally Posted by ToxicAdam:
Those 5000 respondents may be the last 5000 PC gamers alive. ;) |
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Banned
(03-28-2005, 09:42 PM)
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#18
LOL I guess anyone stupid enough to fill out an IGN survey is either desperate for attention (old people) or stupid kids. Either way they are going to click off all the systems they can't afford and click off games they wish they could buy. I would give it a more moderate $200-300 range considering console prices are down and only morons upgrade their video card multiple times a year. Seeing that any gamer knows how to pirate or bend the rules. IE borrowing your friends game/system and chipping in for FF: Chronicles to modchipping is rampant.
I say inaccurate survey. There is no way you can do a good video game survey/poll because half the market is going to be kids. And most kids do not make income. |
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Dot Hacked
(03-28-2005, 09:51 PM)
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#19
Since they pointed to software specifically I only counted games. Keep in mind I don't PC game.
2001 - $527.16 / 14 games 2002 - $559.31 / 16 games 2003 - $648.23 / 24 games 2004 - $289.02 / 8 games 2005 - $223.74 / 8 games $700 on games alone average for me? Nope. |
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The black man everyone at Activision can agree on
(03-28-2005, 10:03 PM)
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#20
Originally Posted by iapetus:
It is a high month for us... but I easily spend more than $700 a year on videogame related stuff. I just don't bother totalling it. |
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it's going to come out of you and it's going to taste so good
(03-28-2005, 10:28 PM)
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#21
If only I could keep my game spending under 700 a year... that would be great.
There's a button I can press on Microsoft Money to tell me exactly how much I've spent on games over the last year but I am very very afraid to click on it. I'd like to live in blissful ignorance and pretend that it's not 100 or 200 a month... more this last few months with all the PSP shennanigans I'm sure. |
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(03-28-2005, 10:36 PM)
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#23
In Neo Geo World...... 700$ is sometimes only 1 game....
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Cranky. Very cranky.
Rather sarcastic to boot. (03-28-2005, 10:44 PM)
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#25
My will is very, very weak. I saw a deal at Gamestop when they were getting rid of their DC, SNES, Genesis, NES games, and I jumped on it (30%-50% off plus that card getting an extra 10% plus a buy 2 get third free deal).
Spent $200 to get 20 games (but I got good ones like the Super Star Wars Trilogy, Yoshi's Island, and Little Nemo: The Dream Master). I also "spent" well over $370 to get a crapload of expensive stuff, but in actuality, it just cost me $70 (thank you, Gamerush!). I guess it evens out somewhere. |
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"to be fair though,
he is clearly black."  (03-28-2005, 11:21 PM)
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#26
Damn, I probably have spent the least amount of money this generation as opposed to any other generation. It seems almost every game I want is half price within 3 months of release. Not to mention my huge backlog of games so I have no problem waiting for games.
Ahh, the beauty of getting old. |
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(03-29-2005, 12:06 AM)
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#29
Originally Posted by JJConrad:
GAF Survey > IGN Survey says the author of the GAF Survey It's bad to make blanket statements of the ENTIRE industry like that, instead, they should only be talking about their own audience, and not all gamers. I mean, how many of you here actually took that survey? And how do they know that all participants paid MSRP (or higher at some retailers)? |
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BenjaminBirdie's Thomas Jefferson
(03-29-2005, 12:11 AM)
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#31
Seems a little low to me. I easily spent over a $1000 in 2004. Granted, I also trade a lot so it is hard to say how much I actually spent. But I know I bought around 15-18 games last year for PC, PS2, and XBOX. Plus, 2 controllers, my XBL renewel, and a new graphics card for the PC.
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Member
(03-29-2005, 12:35 AM)
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#33
I used to spend a couple thousand dollars a year on games in my early to mid twenties, peaking around the Dreamcast era where I probably spent upwards of $3-4k per year for 2-3 years (not entirely on DC stuff, although that was the bulk). Also, a fairly large chunk of this was spent building up collections of stuff that I couldn't afford when I was younger (like a massive PC Engine collection). Oddly, I got more enjoyment out of the "collecting" aspects of all this consumerism than I did actually playing the games (I probably only played 10-20% of the stuff I bought). Eventually, I burned out on all this and got to the point where I didn't play anything, because I had such a massive backlog of stuff to be played. It was actually depressing to look at this giant collection of games, think about how much money I had sunk into it, and realize I would probably never really play and enjoy most of it.
A few years back I did some major pruning in my collection, selling off tons of stuff that I really had no use for (like a lot of DC and PSX games), in some cases my entire collections for a particular system (for example, I sold off all my Genesis gear because I never really liked the system that much). The only things that I really kept were my SNES and Turbografx-16/PC Engine collections because those two meant the most to me (and I actually played those). This gen even though I have all the systems, my software purchases have been much limited, and I stick to bargain bins, sales, and Platinum/Greatest Hits/Player's Choice lines. My software purchases probably run less than $300 per year now. I purchase a lot fewer titles, but I spend more time with them and enjoy gaming more than I have in a good five to seven years. |
