UK has the oldest gamers in Europe

Popular retro games just back it up

1 September 2008 15:34 GMT / By Verity Burns

A new survey from games analyst firm GameVision, has revealed that UK gamers are the oldest in Europe.

In fact in the UK gaming market, 29% of male active gamers, and 30% of female active gamers are said to be 35 or older. This is compared with 24% and 25% in big markets like Spain and Italy.

However, GameVision also stressed that it is very difficult to ever make generalisations about gamers:

"Generally any chat about the average gamer is a bit nuts – it's a mass market pursuit now with the associated niches and segments – you can't sell anything to gamers en-masse, you have to pitch it at the appropriate niche," said Sean Droomgoole from GameVision.

"It's just like with television, or films, or even literature."

Another bod from GameVision, Crawford Christie commented that such growth in adult gamers may be the reason that retro games and old favourites continue to sell so well.

"Older gamers have less interest in learning how to play new games. They are more likely to stick to the brands they already know well. An example of that is Gran Turismo, which is a big hit among older gamers.

"But keeping these known and trusted brands fresh is the challenge," she said.

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Gaming, PS3, PS2, Xbox 360, PC games, Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo, Racing games