New Nielsen Report Highlights Increase of Video Game Penetration

NEW YORK, March 5: Nielsen Wireless and Interactive Services
has released a new report showing that the number of video game consoles in
U.S. television households has jumped by 18.5 percent since the fourth quarter
of 2004 to 45.7 million, a 41.1 percent penetration compared with 39.1 percent
in 2005 and 35.2 percent in 2004.

The report, titled The State of the Console, is the first in a series of analytic studies from
Nielsen examining trends in the video game industry. It incorporates extensive
data on video game console usage from Nielsen's National People Meter (NPM)
sample of over 12,000 television households, as well as its quarterly Home
Technology Report.

Two-thirds of all men in television households between the
ages of 18 and 34 have access to a video-game console in their homes, and the
percentage was even higher (80 percent) for men aged 12-17. Among females aged
18-34, 58 percent had access to a video game console.

According to the report, the number of households that are
subscribing to a service that links their consoles to the Internet has grown to
more than 4.4 million, even before accounting for the connectivity of the
PlayStation 3 and Wii platforms. Between September 18, 2006 and December 31,
2006, 93.8 million persons used a video game console at least once for a minute
or more, and in any given minute of the day, nearly 1.6 million people in the
U.S. are using a video game console. The top 20 percent of gamers averaged 5
hours and 45 minutes of usage per usage day. According to Nielsen, by the end
of 2006, approximately 148.4 million persons had access to at least one video
game console system in their home, representing more than half (52.4 percent)
of the total U.S. television population.

Later this year, Nielsen will also launch its GamePlay
Metrics, which will deliver metered video game usage and demographic data by
game title, genre and platform to advertisers, agencies, hardware manufacturers
and game developers, who will use this quantitative information for negotiating
the buying and selling of in-game and around-game advertising.

"The video game console has become a major player in
the battle for the living room," said Jeff Herrmann, the VP of Nielsen
Wireless and Interactive Services. "In households across the country,
consoles are successfully competing for consumers' time and attention; not
simply as gaming platforms, but as multimedia hubs that also can deliver high
quality digital movies and IPTV."