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Nielsen Reports Shoppers Shifting Away From Video Gaming
Remember those heady days when the video-game industry considered itself to be recession proof? It was certainly nice to hear, but apparently consumer spending doesn't seem to be bearing out that blustery talk. According to a recent report by the Nielsen Company, the economy is causing people to make tough decisions when it comes to managing their entertainment budgets. What was one of the casualties in 2010? You guessed it.
According to the report, consumers are spending more of their total entertainment budgets on activities that include eating out, visiting parks, and shopping. Video games are still the second largest slice of the leisure-time pie, but not as much as they did a year before. Gaming slipped from 9.3 percent of average entertainment budgets to 8.5 percent, while so-called leisure activities enjoyed a bump to 25.1 percent from 20.4 percent.
People are also spending more money on non-telephone related cell-phone activities, too, showing that perhaps while people may still be enjoying video gaming, they're also exploring new places to play such as iPhones and other mobile devices. Or maybe they're just buying lots and lots of ringtones.
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