Report: Games industry to hit $63 billion by 2013

According to an IBISWorld report, the growth of age ranges embracing games as a form of entertainment will result in the American games industry growing from nearly $40 billion today to an all time high of $63.2 billion by 2013, a growth rate of 10.2 percent per year.

The research noted that in the US the average player is 35 years old, the average purchaser is 39 years old, 38 percent of gamers are women (an increase of five percent in five years), 67 percent of household heads play computer or video games, and 24 percent of players are actually over the age of 50.

"When video game consoles began to appear in the 1980s, they were dismissed as a short-lived craze, or at the very least, the domain for awkward adolescents," said IBISWorld's George Van Horn. "How astonishingly wrong we were. Our research has revealed that the teenage boys that played Atari back then are still playing video games now, largely being drawn in to new, advanced electronic gaming that simulates real-life interaction that their kids love as well."

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