Study: Casual gamers are "old and grey" gamers

Perhaps Nintendo is actually on to something with its Brain Training games. According to a new study from casual games developer PopCap Games, a large percentage of casual players are actually over the age of 50 and have said that they play the games for mental exercise, stress relief and pain distraction.

The international research was conducted by Information Solutions Group on behalf of PopCap. Using online surveys completed by 2,191 randomly selected respondents (including 1,040 people age 50 or older), the study revealed that of the estimated 150 million consumers that play casual titles, 47 percent are age 50 or older and 19 percent are age 60 or older.

With all the talk recently of broadening the audience for video games, publishers would be wise to keep in mind that people over the age of 50 like to be entertained and play games too. There's such a strong focus on the 18-34 demographic that game companies could be missing out on a real opportunity to bring in older players.

Also of interest are the reasons cited for playing. For those 50 or older, 74 percent said they felt that playing games gave them good cognitive workouts, 62 percent said playing strengthened their memory, and an even higher 86 percent cited stress relief as a major factor. In addition, almost a third (32 percent) noted that playing helped to distract them from chronic pain or fatigue and almost a tenth even believed that playing actually contributed to pain relief directly.