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Survey Says: Teens Losing Interest in Video Games

by Ingrid on April 6th, 2006

Surveys say a lot of things, and I’m not really sure how much belief power anyone should really put on them. But then again, how else do you find out the deepest, darkest truths lingering in the inner-most crevices of the human psyche if not by sticking a poll in someone’s face?

In a recent survey of high school students, 70 percent of these teenagers said that they are losing interest in gaming and a larger percentage said they intend to spend less time playing video games. Piper Jaffray analyst Tony Gikas, however, says it’s not as bad as it looks.

With all the controversy surrounding violent video games and teens’ access to these games, it’s ironic that a large percentage of teenagers seem less and less interested in playing video games today.

According to a new Piper Jaffray survey of over 600 high school teenagers, although 82 percent of student households own at least one video game platform and 53 percent own multiple consoles, a vast majority of students (80 percent) responded that they intend to cut back on time spent playing video games and 70 percent actually said that they are losing interest in playing video games altogether.

Could it be that the game industry’s audience is becoming increasingly narrow? Is Nintendo right that more needs to be done to attract people of all ages? While 70 percent is a large number, that figure is actually a slight improvement from the 75 percent who said their interest was declining in Fall 2005. According to Piper Jaffray research analyst Anthony N. Gikas, this is a sign that the video game industry is actually starting to stabilize.

I lost interest in video games as a teenager, too. Or maybe it wasn’t so much a loss of interest, as an overwhelming surplus of Other Things To Do. There’s too much going on when you’re a teenager. I had no time in high school for such things, what with the discovery of America Online and Drama Club/Thespian (yes, Thespian) meetings, plays, and rehearsals, etc etc. No time.

But in the end, we all come back around.

(source)

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