Other notable trends from June 2009 show:

• Video game consoles are not just being played by kids – just under 50% of gameplay came from adults 18+
• Teenagers 12-17 have the largest percent of play, which accounted for 25% of gaming in June
• Xbox 360 and PS2 are now neck and neck in terms of minutes played per month, yet June data shows Xbox 360 is the most active console, with the 6-month trend show Xbox 360 with the highest active users



• PlayStation consoles tend to be more gender neutral than other consoles. Xbox 360 continues to skew more male and Wii continue to skew more female.

• More Americans are playing the newer consoles. Nielsen data shows that current generation consoles, such as Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii, made up 50% of total share of minutes in June 2009, while last generation consoles, such as Xbox, PS2 and Gamecube, made up only 31% of total minutes. Use of older gaming consoles (PS One, Atari 2600, Nintendo 64, Sega Genesis, etc.) made up the 19% balance of usage minutes for the month.

“Primarily, we believe mainstream gamers are playing more of the broadly appealing games (i.e Wii Fit, Guitar Hero and Rock Band) pushing their hours of gameplay up,” said Michael Flamberg, director of client consulting, Nielsen Games. “The social aspects of these games have engaged them. We don’t believe hardcore gamers are driving up the usage averages we’ve observed. Second, gamers may be looking to stretch their entertainment dollar further through playing games they own more. The importance of value for them is evident in the findings on used game purchase.”

In terms of why new game sales have been soft, Nielsen offers three contributing factors that explain this:

1. Used game purchasing is at all-time highs in 2009, looking back since 2006. Claims about how many used games are being purchased in absolute terms and as a share of the total (used vs. new) have increased substantially (see graph). This is corroborated by GameStop’s record-breaking first quarter financial results, on the strength of used game sales. Best Buy recently announced it was getting into the used game market as well and Wal-Mart is testing this out.
2. There has been an uptick in claimed subscriptions to video game rental services by mail, to all-time highs since 2006 (14% of gamers in May). This is a plausible substitute for new game purchasing.
3. New game sales have been soft compared to last year in part because of unfavorable title comparisons in terms of how popular the releases have been this spring vs. last spring. This is a hit driven business and there haven’t been as many hits. Awareness of new titles, when prompted with their names, has dipped in 2009 to lows not seen since 2007.

For more, download The Value Gamer: Play and Purchase Behavior in a Recession and read the coverage in the Los Angeles Times.

A gamer is defined as claiming to have purchased a title in the past 6 months and played for at least 1 hour per week on any of the current consoles or the PC.

According to recent data from Nielsen’s Video Game Tracking survey, movie-themed games are driving substantial purchase interest among gamers. X-Men Origins: Wolverine tops the list in terms of total positive purchase interest (definitely or probably interested in buying) for the week of its release. It is joined at the top by several other franchises with large box office releases including Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Terminator Salvation. Looking back a few months, Godfather II scored well relative to others to take second place despite the fact that the movie was released in 1974. Looking ahead, Batman: Arkham Asylum is tied for fifth place but is two months away from release at the end of August. Purchase interest will likely increase to perhaps eclipse all others on this list by the end of the summer. The much anticipated Ghostbusters: The Video Game based on the classic film was released last week and ranked fourth in purchase interest but outpaced all other titles in share of online buzz.

Nearly a quarter of all movie-related video game buzz over the last 60 days is attributed to Ghostbusters, which was released on June 16. Titles related to summer blockbuster hits also generate moderate buzz, with Terminator: Salvation and X-Men Origins: Wolverine getting roughly equal attention in discussion online. Godfather II’s low share of conversation is likely because of the timeframe of this analysis, which goes back to late April which is after the game was released. Several movie-related games geared to a younger audience, including Hannah Montana: The Movie, Night at the Museum 2 and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaur, generated less buzz than their counterparts.

This high level of interest and gender disparity is to be expected based on PC audience measurement for the previous edition of The Sims which can be gleaned from GamePlay Metrics. The Sims 2 released in 2004 but has kept gamers engaged through numerous expansion packs (generally adding gameplay) and stuff packs (generally adding new items) which have been released through 2008. The most recent metered data from March indicates that The Sims 2: The Celebration Stuff, a stuff pack, had the third largest audience (146,000 unique players) of any simulation game. Additionally, the various Sims 2 packs and the core title occupy six of the top 20 rankings for simulation games by audience, accounting for a combined 749,000 unique players. The Sims 2: Mansion, an expansion pack, and The Sims 2: Garden Stuff had the most engaged Sims players for the month with gamers averaging 5 sessions and a little over 6 hours of gameplay per week. Looking at demographics, the players of The Sims 2 base title skew female, age 12 to 17 and play moderate amounts.

Turning to online buzz, The Sims 2 maintains strong engagement with consumers, perhaps through the various expansion packs. Buzz volume YTD for The Sims 2 is comparable to the upcoming title, until reports of leaked and pirated copies of The Sims 3 emerged on May 18.

Buzz for the new title has remained at an elevated level since. Even though The Sims series has a reputation of appealing to the female and casual gaming audience, this audience is not heavily engaged in online discussion of the title. The top sources of discussion for both The Sims 2 and The Sims 3 are gaming sites Neoseeker.com, Eyesonff.com, Electronicarts.co.uk, and Gametrailers.com, which skew male and attract hard core gamers.

Video Games – Total Unaided Awareness Mentions

TW – Week of April 20 / LW – Week of April 13