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With the backing of Activision, Disney, EA, Microsoft, Namco Bandai, Sony, Take-Two and Ubisoft, ISFE says its new pan-Euro data is the industry’s best.
The Interactive Software Federation of Europe unveiled GameTrack at a breakfast briefing in London this week, attended by key publisher representatives including EA’s Europe chief Jens Uwe Intat.
GameTrack covers all forms of video gaming in a single source survey, attempting to offer what ISFE calls an unprecedented understanding of how individuals play games and acquire content”.
ISFE is best known as the organisation that developed PEGI age ratings, which will soon be made the legal de facto age ratings in the UK.
GameTrack surveys 6,700 respodents per quarter in each of the major European territories. Each contributor answers questions about games on PCs and laptops, consoles, portable games devices, smartphones, tablets and even smart TVs. All types of games are included.
MCV is this week exclusively publishing some of the results, which show the balance between how much time is spent playing some games versus how much is spent on them.
ISFE hopes the research will help publishers finally understand how their businesses on traditional formats are being impacted by the rise of emergent ones.
This project was instigated by games publishers,” said Simon Little, managing directorat ISFE.
It has been scoped and developed with the assistance of the biggest names in the industry, with a clear eye on commercial relevance and the long term aim of becoming a standard reference. As the games market evolves, GameTrack will enable us to see whether newer forms of gaming are additive – in terms of time and spend – or whether they are cannibalising traditional gaming formats and revenues.
Will the market expand, or do consumers have finite time and money available and will they simply redistribute this?”
