Our friends at M2 Research recently put out a report called Kids and Games: What Boys and Girls Are Playing Today, which outlines the major gaming trends and preferences among children. Some of the report findings include:

• Nintendo still dominates with kids in the portable space
• Apple is becoming a significant player especially with girls.
• 44% of tween girls (8-11) are now using an Apple device to play games
• 58% of teen girls (12-15) are now using an Apple device to play games
• 17% of teen girls (12-15) play games on the Sony PSP
• 44% of teen boys (12-15) play games on the Sony PSP
• The videogame franchise girls prefer is the Mario series
• 36% of teen boys prefer Call of Duty: Modern Warfare
• The key demographic for online games are boys and girls ages 8-11.
• 91% of tween boys play games online
• 93% of tween girls play games online
• Facebook is now the favorite website among tween (8-11) boys and teen (12-15) girls

The report also includes:

• Overview of Markets and Trends Specific to Kids Gaming
• Companies to Watch
• Buying Habits
• VC Investment Update
• Marketing Games to Kids
• Survey data collected from 5,000 kids

M2 analysts Louise Curcio, Billy Pidgeon, and Wanda Meloni developed Kids and Games: What Boys and Girls Are Playing Today in partnership with KidSay, a research company that has been tracking kids’ preferences for over 10 years. M2 Research and KidSay have formed a strategic partnership to create this ongoing report series, which will be released twice per year.

According to Pearl Research with its new “Online Games Market in Korea” study, the online games market in Korea is forecasted to exceed $2 Billion in 2011. Other key points from the report include:

VGMarket and PlaySpan, released their 2010 Digital Goods Report on Wednesday. The report reveals consumer behavior patterns among existing customers of third-party and first-party online game marketplaces.

The median spent on digital goods in 2009 was:

• $50 per year for Social Networks
• $40 per year for MMOs
• $40 per year for Casual Games
• $40 per year for Free to Play Games
• $37 per year for PC Games with Online Play
• $20 per year for Console Games with Online Play

Other key points include:

• 32% of respondents made purchases within social networks
• Males are playing significantly more games and are the primary drivers of total digital goods sales
• North American women 25 and older are spending disproportionately large sums of money on digital goods
• The average female spent $55 dollars on Social Network games compared to $30 for males

Newzoo recently released a report on gamers in North America and Europe. Here are the key data points from what they released there is a huge market of more than 290 million game players across North America and Europe:

• USA – 183,500,000
• UK – 31,300,000
• GER – 35,500,000
• FR – 25,400,000
• NL – 9,300,000
• BE – 4,700,000

Consoles

• USA – $15,140,000,000
• UK – £2,390,000,000
• GER – €1,540,000,000
• FR – €2,430,000,000
• NL – €315,000,000
• BE – €310,000,000

PC games

• USA -$4,150,000,000
• UK – £740,000,000
• GER – €1,320,000,000
• FR – €690,000,000
• NL – €170,000,000
• BE – € 150,000,000

Game portals

• USA – $2,780,000,000
• UK – £270,000,000
• GER – €430,000,000
• FR – €190,000,000
• NL – €55,000,000
• BE – €60,000,000

Mobile devices

• USA – $1,100,000,000
• UK – £190,000,000
• GER – €180,000,000
• FR – €100,000,000
• NL – €10,000,000
• BE – €10,000,000

MMOs

• USA – $2,120,000,000
• UK – £190,000,000
• GER – €180,000,000
• FR – €160,000,000
• NL – €45,000,000
• BE – €40,000,000

The Full Industry Report is available at: www.gameindustry.com for €299.

DFC Intelligence today announced the release of a series of new reports with comprehensive forecasts on the video game and interactive entertainment industry. These new forecasts provide an overview of the global game industry for console, PC, portable and online video games.

• Worldwide revenue for the video game industry is expected to grow from $60.4 billion in 2009 to $70.1 billion in 2015
• Online game revenue for the PC is expected to exceed $20 billion in 2015
• Console online game revenue is expected to nearly quadruple from 2009 to 2015
• DFC forecasts that following a fairly significant decline in 2009, the overall market will actually continue to experience a downturn over the next few years, with most of the predicted growth occurring in the 2013 to 2015 timeframe
• Most of this decline is due to a slowdown in the current console systems from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony
• While PC and online platforms are experiencing substantial growth, the growth in those markets is not expected to be enough to compensate for the slowdown in console platforms

Niko Partners, the leading market intelligence firm on China’s video game industry, today reiterated the vibrancy of China’s video game industry, based on findings from its newly published 2010 Chinese Video Game industry Annual Review & Five-Year Forecast report.

“Niko forecasts that by the end of this year 93 million Chinese gamers will play a mix of PC online, offline, console and handheld games, yet only the online segment generates legitimate revenue,” said Lisa Cosmas Hanson, managing partner of Niko Partners.

• Niko’s recently forecasted online games revenue in 2010 at $4.52 billion
• There is strong demand for digitally downloaded PC offline games as well as consoles and handhelds, in spite of piracy and the regulation that bans consoles
• Niko calculated that total Chinese game software and services revenue, including PC offline, console, handheld, and (primarily) online games, reached $4.61 billion in 2009, up 28 percent from 2008
• Chinese consumers are entering the online game market at a rapid pace thanks to casual games such as social networking service (SNS) games and other growth drivers.
• China’s 165,000 Internet cafés are used for social entertainment and competition as home PC penetration rises and gamers spend more time gaming at home.
• Chinese console gamers have eschewed previous generation consoles in favor of the Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 3.
• The regulatory landscape continues to be burdensome for game companies.
• China could have 100 million new gamers over the next 2-3 years, driven by social networking games, MMOs and casual games.
• Chinese gamers prefer the Free-to-Play (F2P) model of online games in which online operators generate revenue via the virtual economy, rather than the time-based model in which access is provided for a fixed number of pre-paid hours.
• 63% of gamers surveyed increased their spending on online games in the past year.
• Social Networking Sites (SNS) games have gained popularity among Chinese consumers, and 88% of the gamers Niko surveyed claim to play SNS games.
• The primary reasons gamers with PCs at home go to an Internet café are to be social with their friends and to participate in gaming competitions.
• At least 65% of gamers use Internet cafés at least part of the time.
• There were 68 million online gamers in China by our definition at the end of 2009 and by 2014 the number should reach 141 million, a 15.5% CAGR.

The 2010 Annual Review & Forecast report is available now for $8,000, and a subset version focused on online games, the 2010 Chinese Online Games Market Review & Forecast report, is available for $5,000. To purchase, contact: info@nikopartners.com

New research from The Diffusion Group (TDG) finds that one-third of U.S. broadband households now use a game console that is connected to the Internet:

• 78% of PS3s are online
• 73%of Xbox 360s are online
• 54% of Wiis are online

IE Sherpa Opinion: Data isn’t available on the ARPPU from digital purchases on any of the platforms, however having purchased from each of the systems, XBLA and PSN are very similar in how easy it is to transact. My preference would actually be PSN since you don’t have to purchase points that tend to result in small unused balances in your account. This is the easiest for consumers with a credit card. The Wii is the most difficult to navigate and given the audience should be the easiest to purchase on, but it isn’t.

According to a report by Pyramid Research, Smartphones will capture 37% of the worldwide cell phone market by 2014. This is an increase of 16%in 2009.

• China will capture the No. 1 position in 2010
• Brazil will have a CAGR of 43% over the next five years
• India will have a CAGR of 39% over the next five years
• Turkey will have a CAGR of 37% over the next five years
• Nigeria will have a CAGR of 34% over the next five years
• Latin America will be the fastest growing region at a compound annual growth rate of 48%
• Africa and the Middle East will have a 39% CAGR

Pyramid also forecasts sales of 1.8 billion smartphones over the next five years

According to a release from IDC, there were more than 450 million mobile Internet users worldwide in 2009, a number that is expected to more than double by the end of 2013. Here are the highlights from IDC’s Worldwide Digital Marketplace Model and Forecast”:

• More than 1.6 billion people – a little over a quarter of the world’s population – used the Internet in 2009
• By 2013, over 2.2 billion people – more than one third of the world’s population – is expected to be using the Internet
• More than 1.6 billion devices worldwide were used to access the Internet in 2009, including PCs, mobile phones, and online videogame consoles
• By 2013, the total number of devices accessing the Internet will increase to more than 2.7 billion
• China continues to have more Internet users than any other country, with 359 million in 2009
• The number of Internet users in China is expected to grow to 566 million by 2013
• The United States had 261 million Internet users in 2009, a figure that will reach 280 million in 2013. India will have one of the fastest growing Internet populations, growing almost two-fold between 2009 and 2013.
• The United States has far more total devices connected to the Internet than any other country
• China is the leader in in the number of mobile online devices with almost 85 million mobile devices connected to the Internet in 2009
• The number of Internet devices in India, both mobile and fixed, is expected to grow commensurate with the number of Internet users
• Worldwide, more than 624 million Internet users will make online purchases in 2009, totaling nearly $8 trillion (both business to business and business to consumer)
• By 2013, worldwide eCommerce transactions will be worth more than $16 trillion
• Worldwide spending on Internet advertising will total nearly $61 billion in 2009, which is slightly more than 10% of all ad spending across all media
• Worldwide spending on Internet advertising is expected to reach almost 15% of all ad spending across all media by 2013 as Internet ad spending grows surpasses $100 billion worldwide