Just thought this was interesting:

(From computerworld) 

The gaming industry is dominated by teen boys playing violent first-person shooter games on near-supercomputer gaming consoles. That's the conventional wisdom, anyway. And it's completely wrong.

June sales figures and recent trends reveal a completely different picture. In reality, gaming is going mainstream, attracting people of all ages and both genders, who want to play fun, easy and nonviolent titles.

And the industry is booming -- easily the hottest segment in technology.

The industry raked in more than $1 billion dollars in June in the U.S. alone. The biggest hit, of course, is the $250 Wii. Nintendo sold 381,800 of the gaming systems last month. (Microsoft sold 198,400 Xbox 360s in June, and Sony sold 98,500 PlayStation 3s).

The No. 1 game isn't something like Grand Theft Auto, but Mario Party 8, which sold some 427,000 copies. All the top games are nonviolent. Other major winners include Pokemon titles and Guitar Hero II.

The success of Wii is telling. Its friendly, easy approach to gaming shows that people want to play shorter, lighter games, rather than devoting their lives to mastering increasingly complex games.

Wii is the leader in what the industry calls casual gaming -- easy-to-learn, fun games that are "interruptible." And the top demographic for this category is women between the age of 34 and 55. In fact, more women in this age group play games than males in both teen and young adult categories combined.

Wii consoles are showing up in gyms and schools. They're being used for physical education and regular education. They're even put to work as morale boosters in offices.

http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=mobile_and_wireless&articleId=9028039&taxonomyId=15&intsrc=kc_feat

 

Rather dumb article with no sources, at all.

How is Pokemon not violent? You breed monsters to kill other monsters.
Why are they comparing GTA to Mario Party?

This article fails.

I recall reading that several times before. The women aged 30+ demographic make up most of the US market because of games like Bejeweled and Solitaire.

mrstickball said: Rather dumb article with no sources, at all. How is Pokemon not violent? You breed monsters to kill other monsters. Why are they comparing GTA to Mario Party? This article fails.

You don't kill other monsters in Pokemon ... They only need to see a doctor.

This isn't Michael Vickemon ...

Oh god, where did they do their research?

Middle aged women do not make up the bulk of gamers.Trust me, women are not buying Pokemon and Mario Party 8. In fact, the only games I've seen women play are on the DS. So, they're wrong. The games industry is still largely geared torwards young males.

Hmmm, reading it more carefully, I think the author intended to mean:

More women in the 34-55 age group play casual games than males in both teen and young adult categories combined play casual games.

That's not how it is worded, but I think that's what was meant. Oops, it had me fooled for a few minutes.

I think that the author meant that the cool women/girls play games

MontanaHatchet said: Oh god, where did they do their research? Middle aged women do not make up the bulk of gamers.Trust me, women are not buying Pokemon and Mario Party 8. In fact, the only games I've seen women play are on the DS. So, they're wrong. The games industry is still largely geared torwards young males.

 Women are not buying games, but they are playing them.  Judging by this graphic, women between 34 and 55 make up more of the population than males 14 to 30.  I'm mentioning this only to show a much higher population in that age group than in the other.  Now almost every women in that age group that I am aware of plays Solitaire, Bejeweled, Bubbles, or some other flash game.  People would call them "gamers", but they do regularly play games on a PC or maybe console.  So figureing that 50% of women in that age group play some sort of casual game, they probably still would outnumber young male gamers.  It's an untapped market, but probably will never be due to the fact that they're happy just playing free Flash games that were sent to them in viral email.

noslodecoy said: MontanaHatchet said: Oh god, where did they do their research? Middle aged women do not make up the bulk of gamers.Trust me, women are not buying Pokemon and Mario Party 8. In fact, the only games I've seen women play are on the DS. So, they're wrong. The games industry is still largely geared torwards young males. Judging by this graphic, women between 34 and 55 make up more of the population than males 14 to 30. I'm mentioning this only to show a much higher population in that age group than in the other.

So in terms of population, 21 years worth of US women outnumber 16 years worth of US men?  Do we really need a graphic to prove that?

This entire thread fails.