Girls play more games than boys

A new study posted over at Online Media Daily and completed by the Denizens of Digitivity (say that ten times fast) reveals that it may actually be the ladies who are the more prevalent sex in the gaming console market right now.

The target demographic for most games companies in the past has been fairly simple - 18 to 34 year old single, white male. In other words, developers have been writing games for themselves in the past, as this demographic has been thought to make up the majority of the market. The new survey however suggests that the majority of console owners are actually women.

A massive 44 percent of women in the survey said that they owned a games console right now, compared to only 39percent of men. A lot of this is being put down to the Nintendo Wii by industry analysts.

"The Wii has really caused a democratization of gaming, because that has opened it up to all generations and both genders," said Ann Mack, director of trendspotting for JWT.

Personally, the news isn't all that surprising to me and my girlfriend has been into gaming just as long as I have and she often beats me at virtually any game I play her at, except Monkey Island speed-runs. To me the very idea that women gamers need to be targeted differently by developers is a little preposterous.

Meanwhile, Microsoft will be bringing out a range of coloured Xbox 360 wireless controllers next month. Speaking at the Microsoft Hardware Day, a spokesperson claimed that the addition of a baby blue and baby pink controller to the line-up was to "increase appeal to the growing female market"

Nice.

Do you regularly beat your girl or boyfriend in deathmatches to work off steam, or does your partner think gaming is strictly for nerds and geeks? Let us know what you think in the forums.