In part one of our children’s entertainment report, InterGame takes a look at the changing family entertainment market, the nuts and bolts of children’s games and the use of licensed brands.
Keeping young children entertained can be challenging for parents. Often the leisure and entertainment venues on offer cater to older children and teenagers, but fail to satisfy a younger audience. Historically, amusement operators have catered strongly to the older, teenage market, equipping their arcades with shooting and driving simulators and a host of other video-based games.
How well amusement operators have targeted a younger audience has largely depended on the maturity of the market, Steve Bryant of LAI Games told InterGame.
“If you look at certain territories, like the UK for example, here it is a mature and established market that still has a great deal of an underpinning in gaming. So, by definition, the people that are going to locations where the emphasis is on gaming are an age group that are using amusements but are not children.”
With the introduction of new categories of gaming machines in several jurisdictions, such as video lottery terminals, the gaming market is itself becoming “diluted,” said Bryant. Many operators, therefore, are seeking new ways to generate income from other sectors, such as redemption. “I think market maturity has had a great deal to do with what has happened in the past,” he continued. “A lot of European markets, for example, have had that underlying gaming business and are very different to the newer markets, and those where street gaming is not permitted, such as the US, that have had to depend upon the family market and, in particular, children.”
This article can be read in full in the December issue of InterGame.
