New study reveals gamers don’t buy games for graphics

The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) — the association that represents Sony, Microsoft, Square Enix, Take-Two Interactive, Nintendo, and tons of other developers — has published a study that takes a look at why gamers buy games and who is playing them.

The survey's findings were based off of over 4,000 American households.

What makes you want to buy a game? Gorgeous graphics, continuation of a game series you're invested in, price, the story? There are tons of factors that influence purchasing decisions, but one thing is for sure — people aren't buying games because of advertisements. Only 1% of game purchases are based off of advertisements.

But what about game graphics? People gripe about graphics all the time, but does it change where they put their money? Not really — only 7% cited the quality of graphics to be an influential factor on game purchases. In fact, the majority of consumers (22%) buy a game based off of an interesting story and 15% buy a game because the price is right.

As for who is playing games? It's a pretty good split between female and male gamers, 44% of gamers are female and 56% are male. The split for who buys PC and console games is another good split with 41% of purchasers being female and 59% being male.

The most interesting statistic is that the average female gamer is 43 years old and the average male is 35.

Check out the full survey here.

[GameSpot]

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