Compass: Contents

Since 2003, GameVision Compass has been the only syndicated videogames industry usage and attitude survey. Compass provides historical, quantitative and qualitative analysis of computer game usage, attitudes and emerging trends in the five main European markets: UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy.

Compass is a biannual report covering the following key data areas:

1) Market overview and analysis including up to date hardware and software sales

As background to the main survey, each report has a strategic overview of the games marketplace during the previous half year which includes installed base and software tie ratios, year-on-year trends and forecasts, as well as the performance of top selling titles.

2) Hardware ownership, usage and penetration – “Omnibus”

Previously published once a year, this omnibus section now features in every Compass wave (biannually) and surveys 10,000 European individuals to enable whole European market estimates of hardware ownership and active use. Additional ‘booster’ surveys are available in order to extend hardware ownership research into other territories on request.

3) Usage and attitude survey – “Gamers’ Survey”

This section provides usage and attitude information on hardware and software (including approximately 200 games) amongst gamers of different commitment (e.g. casual, hardcore) between the ages of 10 to 45. Information includes awareness, play-rates and enjoyability of specific titles.

‘Brand maps’ based on specific games brands and versions can be generated on a bespoke basis. Each brand map contains detailed information on the profile of the players, including age, sex, hardcore index, enjoyability etc. and comes in excel format that can be easily used in your own presentations and analysis. Click here to download an example of a brand map.

A variety of special topics are covered in each report such as online gaming, retail outlets used, platform purchase intention, leisure time usage, mobile gaming, five year trends in hardware ownership and many others.

Quantitative data is tracked from wave to wave to isolate, investigate and predict emerging trends and developments.

Individual territory reports are also published to provide insights into the games market at country level.

4) Industry Issue Qualitative Project

Qualitative research drills below the surface of opinions and trends and finds out why people have particular attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. Qualitative research also assesses how these might be catered for or changed.

Each report features a key issue that will be covered in depth in a multi-territory qualitative research project. Topics covered so far include:

Videogame Purchasing Behaviour (Spring ‘03)
Girls and Gaming (Autumn ‘03)
Game Brands (Spring ‘04)
Casual, Lapsed and Non-Gamers (Autumn ‘04)
Kids, Parents and Gaming (Spring ’05)
The Preowned and Pirate Videogames Market (Autumn ’05)
The Online Gamer (Spring ‘06)
The Retail Experience (Autumn ‘06)
The Selection of In-Home Entertainment (Spring ‘07)
Kids, Parents and Gaming revisited (Autumn ‘07)


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