According to a Piper Jaffray study of 5,600 teenagers, 65.9 percent polled stated that they were losing interest in playing traditional console games, up from 63.5 percent last year. At the same time, of those teenagers polled 66.2 percent said they were open to gaming on mobile devices, up from 34.4 percent this time last year.
“While a console refresh in 2013 or 2014 will breathe new life into the industry, the new systems will face unprecedented competition from tablets, smartphones, and connected TVs,” says the report. “We expect growing middle classes and rising Internet penetration rates in emerging markets, particularly Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Asia-Pacific to partially offset competition from tablets and smartphones.”
The poll also showed that 25.3 percent of teenagers are actively playing on social gaming sites, though 92.8 percent of teens said they would not purchase virtual goods, an increase from 80.5 percent in fall 2011. Additionally, 53 percent of those polled were willing to download a full game to their console, while 36.1 percent said they would be interested in a service such as OnLive, compared to 27.1 percent and 15.2 percent last year.
