From the sales of video games, hardware, and the
increase in websites offering guidance on games for
families, we can infer that the number of parents and
children playing video games together is increasing in
the UK. As yet there are no statistics from consistent
longitudinal studies confirming this increase of family
video game play. Video games are defined here as
including all genres such as adventure, music and
sports games, and on all platforms including personal
computers, consoles, handheld gaming devices, devices
not dedicated to games but with that functionality, and
platforms currently being developed. Family gaming
includes any kinship grouping where the players come
from different generations – this is to focus on how these
generations support each other rather than looking at
how they play more generally1.