PS4, Wii U and Xbox One cater to a more mature audience - analyst

PlayStation 4, Wii U and Xbox One are catering to more mature audiences, according to data compiled by EEDAR which found the number of mature-rated games has increased over last-generation offerings.

Speaking with GI International ahead of his GDC 2014 talk entitled "Awesome Video Game Data", EEDAR president and CPO Geoffrey Zatkin said the shift has provided developers a better opportunity to monetize content, more than ever before.

"E10+ was considered maybe not the kiss of death but only sports games ever got rated E10+," noted Zatkin. "If you look at how it's shifted from PS3 to PS4 they only have half the number of Everyone games launched. E10+ was boosted and a lot of it has come out of teen.

"They have also doubled the amount of Mature games that have been coming out. We usually don't see such radical shifts. They are redefining who their market is when you look at who they're targeting age wise.

"They've shifted away in some ways from an audience below 10 fairly dramatically. They are going for an older audience skew on this one."

Comparing the numbers with games released during the first three months of a new consoles offering, mature offerings on PS3 stood at 8% while PS4 currently stands at 17%.

Mature games on Xbox One are u 21% and and on Wii U the figure is approaching 10%.