Guest Post: Who’s Your Momma Now?

Women now make up nearly 60% of players of games on mobile devices. BOOYAH!

Now, I’m not advocating for more “Hello, Kitty” or (FSM forbid) PINK in mobility, but I AM pointing this out to say to the developers, “You cannot afford to continue to think that games, particularly mobile games, are for men.” In fact, with social multi-player games, women are even a BIGGER percentage. As a woman, I can give my opinion on why I think that’s an obvious, no-brainer conclusion: as a whole (and there are always exceptions), I have found that we are more cooperative, more social, than men. So, duh! Of COURSE we’re going to be a bigger consumer of social, and even casual, games.

And here’s pro tip number 2: you want to get your claws into the toddlers? Infants? Pre-teens? Teens? Guess who you’re going to have to go through: Mom, not Dad. So not only have women become the majority consumer of mobile games, but they have a huge influence over the rest of the family. According to EEDAR, a California research firm that specializes in researching video games, women are more likely to play these games with family members and send (and I’d assume accept) those annoying Facebook game invitations. (Remember I said there are exceptions? Yeah, my husband is more likely to play on the Playstation 3 with our son. I tend not to be able to stay with console games for long. But then, I didn’t grow up with a console and my husband did.)

Now before you start feeling threatened, according to EEDAR men still are in the majority in PC and console gaming, but that lead has shrunk from 72% in 2002 to only 53% in 2012.

Even stranger still, according to the USA Today article, Big Fish Games (a game publisher on the PC, iOS, and Android platforms) says that their Big Fish Casino game, which you would think would lean male, actually gets 65% of their revenue from women. (Disclaimer: I have been a BFG member since 2009. I generally play hidden object games, although I have some time management style games too. And yes, I have bought games for my son as well.)

I’m sending this out specifically to Windows 8 and Windows Phone developers. Apple’s App Store is too big now to shift quickly, Google Play has so little oversight it’s nuts, but the Windows Store is young, new, and growing. So you developers are in a unique position to grab these game-playing, socially-connected women NOW. Let’s get more Xbox and Windows Phone cross-over. Tie in all of the social networks so we can go from desktop to laptop to tablet to phone effortlessly, easily, and anywhere. Make the cloud seamless and easy to reach, so we can manage our family’s schedule, finances, and leisure time.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a city to QONQR. Level 79 and FINALLY people are playing in the area. Woohoo! Sign up, and use “Panda” as a referral.

Source: USA Today

– This guest post was submitted by Marti M. She can be reached on Twitter @MartiBWBear. If you’d like to submit a guest post yourself, head on over to our Be Our Guest page to get started.

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