Smartphones and tablets have taken massive chunks out of the handheld console market, something that Nintendo is painfully aware of, but it looks like even the livingroom console and PC gaming markets are being affected as well. At least, that’s what a new report from the NDP Group seems to suggest, with American children between the ages of two and seventeen preferring to play video games on their mobile devices instead of their consoles or PCs.
Interesting news today and yet not overly surprising either. A new study shows that kids now prefer to play games on their mobile device of choice over playing games on consoles. This is a pretty big change from when we were kids. Mind you mobile games have come a long way since their beginnings. The NDP Group has published a new report that says more 2- to 17-year-olds in the US are playing games on their phones and tablets (coming in at 63%) than on their consoles ( coming in at 60%). Two years ago it was 67% of that age group playing games on consoles, so there is a change happening. This is probably going to continue as well with mobile games becoming more and more closer in quality and depth to their console brethren. Another interesting bit of information is that kids in that age group are playing games on mobile devices more often, averaging 6 hours a week. PC gaming has fallen even more so in this age range, with the platforms 67% adoption rating in 2013 dropping to 43% this year. Here is where it gets entertaining. These analysts and experts don’t have a firm reason to why this shift is happening.
