"There's a dearth of information about who's playing these games," said Jill Braff, vice president of marketing at Sorrent. "Everyone in the industry has been experimenting to see what works, but as the market matures, we need this first-hand guidance to support our product and marketing strategy."
“Everyone in the industry has been experimenting to see what works, but as the market matures, we need this first-hand guidance to support our product and marketing strategy.”
Braff discussed Sorrent's findings at a roundtable of youth gamers (18-24 years) that the company moderated for Sunday's Mobile Entertainment Summit. The panel featured six mobile gamers from the Atlanta area who spoke candidly about their usage and preferences to the sold-out audience of mobile industry executives.
"I play cell phone games at work, maybe three or four hours a day" said Jennifer, a 21 year old mobile gamer from Atlanta. "I'm addicted!"
Heavy usage of mobile games, frequency of usage and the broad demographic spectrum of mobile gamers were some of the surprises from Sorrent's research. Research highlights include:
Mobile Gamers Love to Play
-- 60% play games once a day or more
-- 30% play games more than three times per day
-- More than 60% typically play games at home
-- Over 70% play for more than 10 minutes at a time - including a subset who play for more than 20 minutes (and as much as two hours) at a time
-- More than 60% are between ages 18-26 and single
-- More than 50% are either Sprint or Verizon customers
-- More than 70% are sharing mobile gameplay on their phones with friends or family members
-- Most people who download games learn about them through "word-of-mouth"
"The research findings validate and reinforce Sorrent's portfolio strategy," said Greg Ballard, CEO of Sorrent. "We've found that the market is made up of casual gamers, like those that frequent AOL Games; youth who play games together socially; as well as the early adopters and core-gamers who are looking for more serious titles. Our expansion into youth culture and casual games, in addition to growth within our franchise of video game and sports titles, positioned us to address each of these key consumer segments."
For this study, U30 executed 742 web-based surveys aimed at profiling the wireless gaming population in the United States. Respondents were evenly spit across men and women and ranged in age from 9 - 35 years. Respondent were sampled from U30's double opted-in panel of consumers, geographically representative of the US. Excerpts of the research are available to qualified Sorrent partners and members of the media, for more information, please email research@sorrent.com.
About Sorrent, Inc.
Sorrent is a leading creator and global publisher of wireless entertainment. Sorrent's critically-acclaimed mobile content features community, entertainment and games based on original and licensed properties. Sorrent has partnered with major consumer brands, including Atari, FOX Sports and Viacom to extend their leading brands to the mobile lifestyle. Sorrent has developed a proprietary technology infrastructure that delivers graphically rich applications to more than 100 Java and BREW-enabled handsets. The company's extensive distribution network includes international and US wireless carriers, such as Verizon Wireless, Sprint, AT&T Wireless, Cingular, Nextel, T-Mobile and Boost Mobile. Founded in 2001, Sorrent has attracted top-tier venture capital firms including NEA, Sienna Ventures and Globespan Capital Partners. For more information, visit www.sorrent.com.
About U30 Group
U30 Group, a member of the Omnicom network of companies, is a full service qualitative and quantitative research firm, specializing in marketing-driven, creative approaches to consumer insight including proprietary consumer panel research and online methodologies. U30's clients are the leading marketers in the United States. For more information, contact Chad Young at 865-525-5721 or chad.young@u30.com
Sorrent, Inc. is a trademark of Sorrent, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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