Little boys love violence. It's no surprise that Call of Duty is a hit with them.

"Little boys love violence." Hey! That's a blanket statement.

Not all violent games rank high with kids. Just ones with addictive well designed multiplayer gameplay, haha.

If 8 year olds are free to roam the internet and play games, and no one is keeping an eye on them, something is amiss.

Tweens don't have money.

Remember when games were mostly made for kids?

This should be no surprise. Video games were once made for kids, and designed by teenagers and 20-somethings. I think this is one of the defining factors of the Social Games Era, and it does demonstrate how games are returning to their roots, becoming sleeker, slimmer, more focused and straight to the point. Social Games are defined by Arcade Era values. It is defined by the new technologies of motion controls and social media - Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, smartphones, DS and Wii.

The previous paradigm, the Cinematic Games Era, has overshot the market and has fallen to bloat and excess. The average age of a PS360 gamer is an adult male in his 30's. This has opened the door for a disruptive change in the marketplace, and it makes perfect sense to me that this would happen, that younger kids and especially girls would drive the paradigm shift. It's a change of values.

I'm curious to see what role Facebook plays in the future of games. I do believe smartphones are the engine of the future. The next great videogame war will be waged by Nintendo, Apple, and Google. Technology certainly shapes these paradigm shifts, and I wouldn't be surprised if the economy is an influence, too. What role does the Great Recession play in all of this? What if America and the global economy are in deep recession for the bulk of this decade? Would this emphasize the smaller, the sleeker, the more efficient?

In the end, I think a great videogame is a great videogame. If designers can respect their audience and respect the emerging rules of the Social Games Era, there's no reason why they can't succeed. I see fields of gold from here to the horizon.

Tweens who play video games seriously that early will have no earning power (because they are incapable of working hard or focusing) by the time they get to the age where they can afford to buy things.

Yes Thomas, tell that to this community of gamers who likely played games seriously at that age and now (likely) work in the industry and do have "earning power".

I understand your sentiment however, and at least for me personally leads to a bit of a moral dilemma. It feels somewhat wrong to me to target children to become addicted to online games, and thus difficult to embrace that with a game making passion. It also feels a bit cold and odd to call not targeting tweens as consumers a "missed opportunity".

I can vouch for Thomas Lo's comments. Kids who play games that early and so seriously generally fair poorly in school. Now to Jack Wilson's comments it is not a moral dilemma. It is the responsibility of the parents to raise their children responsibly and to take an active role in raising their children.

Lots of kids play games to stay out of trouble. Parents need to monitor how their children spend their time, especially when online. Like anything, video gaming should be done in moderation, and after responsibilities and obligations have been fulfilled. In fact, gaming can assist in concentration, coordination, socialization and a host of different life skills that can be practiced and reinforced in virtual environments with little risk.

Isn't Call of Duty: Modern Warfare a 16+/M rated game?

This study doesn't really make that much sense to me as far as the conclusions that they've drawn:
"'There are opportunities for companies, and we believe the kids market has been overlooked.'"
But their study found that:
"Thirty-six percent of teen boys said they prefer Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, making it that group's top pick."

So it doesn't seem to me like kids are overlooked, it seems like they simply are more interested in games that are targeted at older gamers.

Now as far as younger girls and gaming sure I can see how they aren't being targeted, but females in general of all ages aren't being targeted for AAA game releases (or most releases in general save for what most would consider shovelware); I mean there are plenty of games which I think are gender neutral enough to interest both genders but no company is willing to risk making a big budget game focused on the interests of female gamers. Very few indie games seem to explicitly target female gamers as well.

"70 percent of teen girls play PSP games"

I would be interested in knowing which PSP games are popular with teen girls.

@John yea I am also perplexed by that number. Although I am also perplexed that my fiancee who has 2 Nintendo DS's, an iTouch, iPhone4, and an Amazon Kindle wants a PSP. When I ask her why, she says she just does... perplexing indeed!!!