Where have all the gaming geeks gone? Aussie report.

Mike Bantick
Friday, 02 February 2007 06:26

Opinion and Analysis

The Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia (IEAA) has released its 2007 report on the current state of play in Aussie homes.  It seems that gaming is becoming increasingly mainstream, at the expense of non-interactive electronic entertainment.

There are many facts and figures in the latest Computer and Video game industry report published by IEAA.  Some of the conclusions have been a little twisted.  For example 62% of Australians in game households say the classification of a game has no influence on their buying decision.  Yet in the same report the average age of a ‘gamer’ has gone from 24 to 28 Years old in the past two years. 

So in essence, the vast majority of gamers are over 18 years of age,would tend to ignore the rating on the box, when buying games for themselves.

Not to say that the rating system is not a useful device – 35% of gamers are parents, 77% of parents play games with their children.  Deciding on what games will be suitable for all in family fun is still important.

This is backed by an 88% support level to bring in common classification across Film and games – Effectively a call for an R rating in gaming, rather than the current “unclassifiable” rating mature games receive now.  This means game developers tone down the content or are banned from Australian shelves.