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Nielsen ranks online play time, time spent gaming for each console
OK. We're going to share some numbers with you, but you have to promise not to freak out, by which we mean skipping straight to the comments and going off half-cocked. You promise? OK. So, according to a console usage survey by The Nielsen Company, PS3 owners spend just under half their time (49 percent) gaming, as compared to 62 percent on 360 and 69 on Wii. Since you're not freaking out about that (you promised!), you should check out Gamasutra's analysis where you'll find some other interesting figures, like how much time is spent online and which ages are playing. The time spent gaming statistic, if you thinking about it, isn't a measure of which platform has the most "r33l gamerz" (is "r33l" a thing? if not, we're starting it) but what people are buying the consoles for. A look at time spent watching DVDs and Blu-ray's (27 percent on PS3 vs 11 on 360) reminds us that there are probably plenty of non-gamers that just bought the box as a cheap Blu-ray player padding the numbers. So, the consoles all do different things and different people love them for different reasons. It's a veritable rainbow of useful applications and applicators. It's ... crap, you're already commenting, aren't you?
Nielsen: 31 percent of kids want an iPad, other stuff
Hey look, a chart with the iPad on top. Aren't statistics fun? And yet, this chart may not mean quite what you think it does. The Nielsen Company presented a cadre of individuals with a list of nice, shiny gadgets and let them cross off anything and everything they'd like to buy in the next six months, and 31 percent of kids 6-12 picked the iPad as one of them. That doesn't mean these youngsters wanted the iPad any more than a game console, mind you, it just means more of them picked the tablet than any other single game console on the list. Also, it turns out that the iPad was the only tablet PC available, so it could well have served as a proxy vote for other slates -- Galaxy Tab, anyone? The survey results also don't factor in ownership, so if the Xbox 360's low on the buy list, it could be because respondents already have one... but we suppose this is the definitive proof we've been searching for that e-readers are on the outs in the 12-and-under crowd. Jeff Bezos is crying over his evening oatmeal right now. After the break, see what the same chart looks like for teenagers and adults. (Hint: they aren't all that hot on handhelds.)
Nielsen ratings say WoW is top dog of the PC domain
GamesIndustry.biz has their hands on the latest data from the Nielsen Company that tracks game usage from April to November this year. It isn't a big shocker that World of Warcraft has the highest percentage of PC players in an average minute, as they are doing amazingly well by everyone's estimation, but Nielsen was able to provide a figure on the average amount of hours played per week: just over 17.This seems like a huge amount for the average. Obviously there is a large quantity of very heavy users that are skewing it that way, but it must mean that it's not uncommon for even the most casual players to sink in a few hours here and there. The closest competitor to WoW for people playing in an average minute was The Sims, and its average usage was 5 hours a week. Not even close. It is worth noting that Runescape comes in at third place for the PC, above Halo and Halo 2. Oh, and forget the big 3 in current-gen consoles -- the Playstation 2 is still where it's at, taking up 42 percent of all console-gaming time.
SCEA partners with Nielsen to track in-game advertising
Sony has revealed a new partnership with The Nielsen Company, who specialise in market research, in order to better track the success of in-game advertising. Initially being tested in North America exclusively, the partnership will allow Sony to monitor the reach, frequency and effectiveness of in-game advertising. Sony will share usage statistics from the PlayStation Network with The Nielsen Company, including which games people are playing most and what content they are accessing within Home, in order to better focus advertising efforts into the right people and areas. Advertisers will be able to look at the collated data and decide for themselves where they would like to place their adverts. They will also be able to see exactly how those ads are performing. What this means to you is: not a lot. If anything, you'll end up seeing more ads that you care about, rather than ignore. We imagine this will become most prominent with the launch of Home, as it provides a much larger scope for advertising than the PSN does currently. Overall though, if in-game advertising is something we have to put up with, then we'd rather it be for a product we want to buy. This partnership should increase the chances of that happening.
