Health eGames Market Report 2008

The Market:  Worldwide video gaming is a growth business with sales (hardware and software) reaching $37.5 billion in 2007 and estimated to surpass $61.9 billion by the year 2012. Health eGaming is a new and rapidly expanding segment that delivers aspects of the Casual and Serious Gaming markets to consumers seeking improved exoeriences and professionals focused on performance enhancement. Casual Gaming is a $2.2 billion market composed of fun and easy to learn video games that can be played across mobile, PC, Mac and console platforms. Serious Gaming is a $1.7 billion market segment focused on utilizing gaming applications to achieve benefits beyond entertainment, such as training, education and performance improvement.

Health eGames leverages the easy-to-use, highly engaging and interactive nature of electronic gaming including: video games, virtual worlds and immersive learning simulations, to support consumer health and fitness, and to promote professional education. The iConecto-Gaming4Health definition of Health eGames includes their delivery across all platforms Online (including Social Networks); Consoles, PCs, Devices and Mobile (e.g iPhone and Nintendo DS).

iConecto estimates the Health eGaming market at approximately $7 billion during the next 12 months including the markets for brain fitness ($267M), exergaming ($6.4B+) and other Health eGames on the consumer and professional side ($250M+). 

According to analysts, game industry growth will be driven by the “nontraditional” gaming markets, including Casual Games, Active Games, Serious Games, and Health eGames. In part this new growth is being fueled by Nintendo’s launch of the Wii Fit in the U.S. (projected first year sales are 3M units).  The October release of a new book, Changing the Game: How Video Games are Transforming the Future of Business (click here for link), underscores this notion that video games are becoming a valuable tool for mainstream business.  Used for everything from marketing to training to increasing productivity, “the evolution of video games has definitely given companies the ability to create virtual sandboxes that can provide a competitive edge.” (click here for link)  As importantly, gaming can also create opportunities to reduce costs and increase profitability.

It may be surprising to some that the healthcare industry has been among the first to recognize the ‘game-changing’ potential of games in business and other environments.  Leaders in the healthcare sector are now embracing video games as an integral part of a digitally enabled health culture.

“Health eGames” are video games that deliver measurable health benefits.  It is a gaming category that continues to gain accolades from organizations experiencing success by combining digital education, engagement and entertainment to support health and fitness. Health eGames have now been vetted by significant research efforts, and the data shows that people can, in fact, “game” their way to a healthy outcome – whether that be managing diabetes, recovering from cancer, improving eating habits or losing weight.  Health eGames include everything from Wii Fit, Brain Age and Dance Dance Revolution to Re-Mission (for teens with Cancer), Juice Jumble (from Playnormous) and Amazing Food Detective (from Kaiser Permanente).

It is clear that Health eGames will be part of accelerated growth in the overall video games market, with projected value nearing $7 billion in the next 12 months.  Today, there are more than 300 consumer focused Health eGames offering an active, multimedia video experience across multiple platforms—from personal computers and consoles such as Wii, XBOX and PS2, to online and mobile applications such as iPhone’s accelerometer and Nintendo DS.  And rapid growth in adoption is being driven by some unexpected demographic segments, including mothers, seniors and even toddlers.

The Health eGames Market report released in October 2008 by iConecto, a leading digital media solutions firm focused on health, delivers the first comprehensive review of the Health eGames industry. The report documents a consumer and professional market and outlines 5 major categories for consumer Health eGames including: Exergaming, Brain Fitness, Health Eating, Condition Management and Stress Reduction.  The report highlights the two decade history of Health eGames, details the market size, reviews the major players, highlights the market drivers and identifies the business and investment opportunity. 

Health eGames is driving a paradigm shift in health and medicine.  Health plans, employers, hospitals and health systems, for-profit healthcare companies, schools, universities and government will see their products, services, markets and customers transformed through the growing power and influence of Health eGames.  Pioneers such as Robert Wood Johnson, Humana, CIGNA, Kaiser Permanente, HopeLab and many others are already staking out territory in the Health eGames industry.  As this trend continues to grow, health leaders, investors and decision-makers are faced with an important decision: Take action now and ride the wave of Health eGames by building innovative solutions for engagement and effectiveness with the community of 200 million monthly gamers who cut across all demographic categories, or hold back and run the risk of missing out on one of the most significant social, cultural and technological trends of the next 10 years. 

Key Highlights

1. The Health eGames Market is rapidly expanding market estimated to be $7B+ in the next year.  It overlaps the nearly $6B combined markets of Casual, Active and Serious Games. (Source: iConecto analysis)
   
    
2. Video games are a media, not products.  Video games engage citizens in way that is very powerful within the context of an online community or social network.
    
3. 35% of parents play computer and video games and 93% of these parents have children who also play them. (Source: Peter D. Hart Research Associates)
    
4. 61%  of parents believe games are a positive part of their children’s lives. (Source Entertainment Software Association 2006 Survey)
    
5. Humana, CIGNA, Kaiser Permenante and Inland Empire are health plans taking a leadership position in the Health eGames market.
   
6. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is a leading advocate in Games for Health through education, communications and grant money.
    
7. 300+ Health eGames have been developed for people and patients.  The number & variety of Gaming4Health (GameBase) are growing rapidly as more and more games are being identified from developers and sponsors in the United States and worldwide.
    
8. 35 + Health eGames have been identified for professionals in the health and medical industry.  The search for these has just gotten underway.
    
9. The Clinical Evidence Base is growing steadly. A number of clinical studies for various health conditions: cancer, asthma, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, exer-gaming and brain games have been profiled here. Many other clinical trials of Health eGames are underway funded by RWJF and others.
    
10. The Experience Base of consumers and professionals using Health eGames across the globe is growing exponentially.  A great number of health organizations, doctors, therapists are finding games useful for wellness, fitness and a variety of conditions: childhood obesity,  smoking cessation, pain management, physical/occupational therapy and more!
     
11. ll forms of eGaming are becoming one of the most popular features of leading online social networks and Internet portal companies. Social networking sites are growing at record speeds - over 500K new registered users every day on MySpace and Facebook alone!  As of January 2008, it was estimated that these two popular social networking sites had over 170 million active users. In the evenings MySpace has over 50,000 concurrent online gamers playing in their Web service.

This report delivers an indepth analysis of the video games, immersive learning simulation (ILS), virtual worlds and virtual/realities: their application in the field of health, fitness and medical care. Video gaming, immersive simulations, and virtual worlds have many current and future applications in health on the consumer and professional side of the equation.  For consumers these eGames can improve fitness, support healthy eating behaviors, harness the power of a social network to support change, assist in managing medical conditions and enhance brain function. For the professional there are numerous applications in physical therapy, recreational therapy, training, and 3D visualization of medical information. The Health eGames Market Report includes next steps that organizations should consider taking with regards to the field of Health eGames to achieve improved personal and organizational performance.

Obtain an expanded summary to be sent to you at no charge or obtain access to the entire report through the online form below.  Thank you for your interest.  Call us with questions at 703.626.7140 or email info@iConecto.com.

"For more than a decade, my thinking and my keynotes have kept up with the cutting edge of health care IT by listening to and reading Douglas Goldstein. His Health eGames Market Report taught me a lot and made me think in new ways about the emerging world of health care in the United States. What more can one ask for? You can be sure I will be quoting this report in my lectures and in my writings."

Kent Bottles, MD

President, Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement