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Kids Prefer To Play Games On Mobile Devices Over Consoles
New submitter chloealsop writes: The NPD Group has published a report showing that more kids age 2-17 are playing games on phones and tablets than on consoles in the U.S.. 45 percent of kids use a home PC for gaming, a drop of 22 points since 2013. "The largest and most surprising shift in the 2015 gaming ecosystem was kids' move away from the computer," NPD Group analyst Liam Callahan said in a press release. "In the past, the computer was considered the entry point for gaming for most kids, but the game has changed now that mobile has moved into that position. This may be related to a change in the behavior of parents that are likely utilizing mobile devices for tasks that were once reserved for computers."
A bigger failure in logic is that kids 2-17 "choose" their gaming platform. As a parent, it is MY choice. I let my kids play with my iPad in the backseat, so they will shutup and let me drive. No way am I shelling out for a console.
PC gaming is a larger market than all other platforms... COMBINED.
The problem is that no one owns it and so big companies like to push the notion that the PC is shit. They talk about Xbox or PS4 or mobile and ignore that while there are lots of people that do that, it isn't where the meat and potatoes are of the gaming world.
Mobile gaming being the future? F'ing candy crush? Okay. Believe what you like there.
PS/Xbox is the future? Even industry insiders are saying that the consoles have maybe one or two more generations left in them at most.
The PC however... never been stronger. So by all means... keep shitting on it.
It makes about as much sense as those dumb shit articles that were saying that business was going to stop using desktop computers and shift entirely to web applications on phones and ipads. These are the sorts of comments you expect from people that don't actually know what they're talking about.
If you understand gaming then you understand that the PC dominates and you understand why.
If you understand office programs... word processors, spread sheets, databases... then you know the desktop PC isn't going anywhere.
The people that suggest otherwise are clueless media nitwits or lying through their teeth corporate trolls trying to get people to use their crippled systems where they can jack up costs for no reason.
Cue console peasants telling me why consoles are great... I'd love to hear you so much as try you filthy fucking animals.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Us techies always think it's about power or performance, but mobility is a transformative feature. Many people prioritize it over nearly every customer experience feature we can offer in products today. It's largely why Apple came to dominate smartphones. They offered the world's most mobile handheld computer first.
If I were Microsoft or Sony, I would be very worried. Most of my gaming time used to be on PC games. Then I progressed to consoles and now nearly all of my gaming time is on my iPad or iPhone with minimal laptop time for games not on iOS. Smart gaming companies are already pivoting into mobile gaming where the majority of the money is in the gaming industry.
As a parent, it is MY choice. I let my kids play with my iPad in the backseat, so they will shutup and let me drive
Sounds like they are choosing more than you think.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Also, no console tax.
Is the console tax really that much more than the 30 percent tax that Google, Amazon, and Apple charge in their respective app stores? No. In fact, it's exactly the same, as Apple announced an App Store with a 30 percent tax months after Microsoft announced Xbox Live Indie Games with a 30 percent tax.
The "console tax" is not a fee that Microsoft or Sony charges, it's a price discrepancy between PC/mobile versions of a game and the version that appears on consoles. It's not a consistent thing but more often than not prices are higher on consoles than elsewhere.
You just don't realize it. You're not anywhere near as in control as you think you are. Like it or not advertising works. Not always, but lot and lots of times. It's especially effective on kids. Out of spite you might personally block your kids from consoles if you become aware that it's the advertising that makes them interested, but if so you're very much in the minority. Your opinions, beliefs and desires were heavily shaped while you were young and vulnerable, and so are your kids. The advertisers are more interested in iPad games because they're cheaper to make and just as profitable as an aggregate whole. We'll all do as we say because as kids we literally can't think for ourselves. That's why in the 60s and 70s Mr Rogers and others fought against advertising directed at children, and it's also why they lost.
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The AAA titles that I have noticed recently cost the same $59.99 on the consoles that they do on the PC.
The little crap games available on Mobile are a whole different category. Most of them are not worth the $0.99 that is charged for them. There is another category of $7.99 games on mobile, but those are almost always just ports from console games by the big publishers.
Believe me, some of us have searched long and hard for anything worth playing on 'mobile' that is in app stores. It gets to the point where you search for ONLY games that you can pay for once and just play, because the 'free' games are either spam or microtransaction hell.