Increase in Mobile gaming effected console gaming on a large scale, a research suggests

Smartphones and tablets are impacting every walk of life, whether its entertainment, business or simple household. In a recent survey conducted by NPD Group, the video gaming industry has also received a blow in sales and usage.

According to the report published on Wednesday, the gaming industry is in a decline because almost 5 percent of the gaming populace of the US has stopped playing games on consoles, which is more than 12 Million. The US is the largest consumer market in gaming and around 211.5 Million were registered as active gamers in 2011.

However, the recent wave of tablets and smartphones that run on faster processors and efficient graphics cards has gouged an unprecedented portion of the gamers. According to the report, around 22 percent of the total gaming community now plays on mobile devices, which is a 9 percent jump over the past one year.

Games are divided into two categories, physical games that can be bought on DVDs, Blu-Ray, memory cards and digital games that can be downloaded, played online or used via cloud servers. The report finds that the digital gaming has increase to 16 percent, which is four percent higher than last year.

Gamers spent $48 on physical games and $16 on digital games on average in the last one year. Core gamers spent $65 on physical games.

The spending has proved a nightmare for game developers, who spend millions on producing top-of-the-line games for console makers like Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.

The basic reason for the detraction from console gaming, in general consensus, is the increasing entertainment options from the likes televisions, mobile devices and social media network.

“That is outside the scope of our study, but I think logically it makes sense that with new devices and services across entertainment categories, there (are) simply more entertainment options available to consumers,” NPD analyst Anita Frazier said.

The trend according to Frazier will change once console manufacturers release their new products this year or the next. Nintendo is expected to release the next-gen Wii U later this year whereas, Microsoft and Sony will have a take on it in 2013.

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Posted by Usman Khalid on Sep 7 2012. Filed under Sci-Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.