IGN Entertainment Reports Massively-Multiplayer Online (MMO) Gamers Spend More Than 25 Hours Per Week Playing And Talking About MMO Games
September 20, 2005 - San Francisco, CA -- IGN Entertainment, a leading Internet media and services company focused on the video game and entertainment enthusiast markets, is releasing a report on the phenomenon of massively-multiplayer online (MMO) games titled "Get Hooked on MMOs: Inside the phenomenon of Massively Multiplayer Online games."
This major report from IGN draws its research from millions of regular visitors to its family of sites, which includes IGN.com, the IGN Vault Network and GameSpy.com. During the month of July, IGN Research Solutions surveyed 5,634 active MMO gamers from those sites. The survey group was about equally split between heavy gamers, who spend an average of 18 hours per week playing MMOs, and moderate gamers, who play MMOs for an average of 10-12 hours per week. The goal of this research was to gain a deep insight into MMO gamers-who they are, what games they play, and why they play them.
Highlights of the report's findings include:
- A typical MMO gamer is male and between the ages of 13 and 34, with an average age of 27.
- Although MMO gamers indicated that they try multiple MMO titles, in general they play only one MMO title at a time.
- The most highly anticipated unreleased titles are Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach and The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar (formerly Middle Earth Online).
- New isn't always best; other titles at the top of the most-popular MMO title list include older titles such as World of Warcraft and Asheron's Call 1 & 2.
- Above all other features, MMO gamers indicated that character customization is the most important, even higher than character progression.
- Gamers find a shortage of new content, lack of balance, and too many bugs to be the most frustrating aspects of MMOs.
- As for what keeps a gamer from jumping to a new game once they have reached the end-game of the MMO they are playing, most said that their community connections were their reason for staying.
The importance of community is further emphasized by the reported influence that word-of mouth from friends and family have on what games MMO gamers choose.
Expert insight from IGN editors provide a picture of who is playing MMO games, comment on current trends and predict future trends.
"Expect to see MMOs on all of the next-gen consoles, as well as the current generation of handhelds (DS, PSP)." said Dave Kosak, Editor, GameSpy. "We also expect to see a wider range of payment options for players. Fees charged to cell phone bills (as they often are in Asia), bigger discounts for purchasing service in advance, or games with no monthly fee at all, but tons of extras to buy on a regular basis - new missions, new expansions, etc."
The report is available at no charge to members of the press, industry analysts and clients of IGN. For further information, please contact research@ign.com.
About IGN Entertainment
IGN Entertainment is a leading Internet media and services company focused on the videogame and entertainment enthusiast markets. Collectively, IGN's properties reached more than 28.5 million unique users worldwide in the month of July 2005, according to Internet audience measurement firm comScore Media Metrix*. The company's network of videogame-related properties (IGN.com, GameSpy, FilePlanet, TeamXbox, Direct2Drive and others), is the web's number one videogame information destination and attracts one of the largest concentrated audiences of young males on the Internet. IGN also owns and operates the popular movie-related website, Rotten Tomatoes and one of the leading male lifestyle websites, AskMen.com. In addition, IGN provides technology for online game play in videogames. The company is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, with offices throughout the U.S. and in Montreal.
*Worldwide data cited herein represent an aggregate of 32 countries reported by comScore Media Metrix on a monthly basis.
IGN Entertainment, IGN.com, GameSpy, AskMen.com, Rotten Tomatoes, FilePlanet, TeamXbox and Direct2Drive are trademarks of IGN Entertainment, Inc. Other trademarks and copyrights mentioned are the properties of their respective holders.