2. INTRO + MARKET
• Video games are a billion-dollar business and have been for many years. In
2011, video and computer game spending in the United States amounted
to 16.6 billion U.S. dollars. Newzoo, a market research firm specializing in
video games, estimates that 145 million Americans played some sort of
video game in 2011, more importantly 63 million Americans were actually
willing to spend money on video games. Moreover, as the first generation
of gamers is growing up, video games can no longer be considered child’s
play: In 2012, 37 percent of American video game players were older than
36 years of age and only 32 percent were younger than 18. Kids and
teenagers are among the heaviest users of video games though: according
to the results of a 2009 survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation,
on a typical day , American 8- to 18-year olds spent 73 minutes playing
video games.