Target Audience: 12-15 years old. What is the market?

[timgarbos]

Hi,

I am currently working on an idea for a game for 12-15 years old, but before I start anything I would like a few questions answered. Maybe you can help me or direct me to some articles.

- Who is paying for the game when you are in that age span? (The target platform for the game has not yet been decided).
- How is the smartphone market for that target audience. Any examples of games earning money here?
- Is it possible to have in-app purchases or doesn't it work because the parents don't pay for it?


PS. I don't mind, but based on recent articles it might be interesting to create a category/forum called Business.

[oliverdb]

Smartphone segment is not that good if you want money, at least according to flurry, its 3% of the total revenue avaliable.

http://blog.flurry.com/bid/72755/Mobile ... -Men-Binge

[vonknut]

Thanks for the numbers Oliver.
-which gives a pretty clear impression, of massive differences between the age-groups.

As a personal thought though, how do they get the ages of their users?
I have never incountered any age inquiries in any games I have played.
So do they just "ask them" or is it included in openfeint / appstore account info?

[timgarbos]

Thanks for the answer!

[oliverdb]

Vonknut... I have no clue, probably phone UID paired with choice of APP.
But they are very precise with our target group.

[mikesk]

Well it is a hard target group
With Tweens you have two things you have to think about.

1. make a game which is interesting for the target group, which they want to pay for (obvious)
2. There may be gate keepers. The parents, especially the moms, who want to make sure that they do not play something they should not.

Also Tim what kind of game is it going to be (money wise) buy onetime or is it free-to-play micro-transactions.

There are different strategies to follow for both

[timgarbos]

Right now it's only a pitch for something that could fit together with an animated tv series, but it is a difficult market for games.