Joystiq

Game consoles aren't really game consoles anymore. Sure they play games, but they're also capable of plenty of non-gaming activities. In today's age, we have an abundance of apps and features installed on our consoles that make watching our favorite shows and movies easy and convenient. But of course, you already knew this.

What you may not have known is that researchers at Parks Associates claim that game consoles are currently not just able to help us catch up on the lates ...read more

International research firm Parks Associates envisions a bright future for casual gaming. The firm predicts the "premium" casual games business will be worth a very cool $1 billion by 2013 and the key to all of it is social networking.

Parks Associates president Stuart Sikes says "a persistent identity and integration with social network sites" will allow casual gaming to maintain its core audience, while expanding its reach at the same time." As companies try to capture sub ...read more

"Parks Associates' Michael Cai began with some charts. According to the data, female gamers heavily prefer computers to consoles: female gamers spend an average of 70% of their gaming time on computers, versus male gamers' 56%. Female gamers make up 62% of the casual game audience, and this group, especially those age 13-17, play more sessions per month. There is less diversity among genres for female gamers as well: across age groups, puzzle and card games are the most popular ...read more

If you don’t own a PSP, you probably want one. That is, if Parks Associates’ “Mobile Entertainment Platforms and Services” study is accurate. The consumer study asked around 2,000 U.S. Internet users what portable device they wanted to buy, and 49% answered “PSP.” The second most desired hardware was the Nintendo DS/GBA (they were grouped together) at 33% and the N-Gage at 4%.

From the article "Sony PSP is getting us all hot and bothered," by Ben Zackheim.