The NPD Group (one of those stats companies) just published their annual results charting what percentage of the U.S. population plays video games.

72% of Americans play some sort of video games, up from 64% last year.

Of that 72%, only 42% play games online, up from 40% last year.

Of that 42% of online players, 90% play online with their PC.

50% of online console gaming was on the Xbox 360.

Only 2-3% of NPD’s respondents reported owning more than one console.

It’s amazing to me that HP and other Computing/Internet/Web companies are ignoring this incredibly HUGE market. I bet the list of things that 72% of Americans do isn’t as crowded as you might think, which further emphasizes my point. If I give even an incredibly small fraction of those people a reason to print something (ANYTHING) I’m making money. Designing products to fill that void is easy…THE CONTENT IS ALREADY BEEN CREATED.

The truth of the matter is…that the products don’t even have to be good. This is such a new (but getting older every minute) market that the first few forays, if clever, would pave the way for more innovative and richer content.

and we’re not even talking mobile usage yet…which is going to be the NEXT step.

Interesting times ahead for sure.

MiH