Amazon has been marketing games on the entire line of e-ink readers for the last four years. The Kindle Keyboard, Touch, Paperwhite, and prior models all have to ability to purchase “Active Content” directly from the Amazon store. Normally each game costs $2.99 and major publishers such as Electronic Arts are contributing content. With close to a thousand games available, are readers actually playing them?
Kindle Games are often fairly basic in nature and most tend to focus on word association, brain teasers, and puzzles. In some cases there are some great note taking and business apps that you can use. You can easily purchase games directly on your Kindle, or navigate to the Kindle Games & Active Content section on Amazon’s website. We talk to thousands of Kindle users at conventions, on our forum or who comment on our website. Hardly anyone has ever brought up playing games on their e-reader. The main question is whether are people even aware they can do this and do they have a desire to do so?
A recent poll conducted on the official Kindle Boards had over 100 people weigh in on playing games on their e-ink device. 38% of the voting audience said they have either purchased or played games at one point or another. 25.7% of the population said they have never played any games, or have no intention of ever doing so. The final 35% weighed in and said they only play games on their Kindle Fire.
Amazon is the only company in the world that has a small market devoted to the sales of Kindle Games. Most other companies ship their devices with a few basic ones, like Sudoku or Chess. In all cases, you are stuck with the default ones and do not have any options to install or purchase other content. People obviously buy dedicated e-readers to read ebooks.
In researching this article, the vast majority of Kindle users had no idea they could buy or purchase games on their Kindle. One particular user told us “I didn’t know my Kindle could be used for games as well as reading books. A whole new world has opened up to me. I travel and waiting in airports, lines, etc., can be distracting and reading can become difficult. Games are easier to keep one’s mind occupied and do not require undivided attention. As a senior, I need to keep my mind active and this does the trick. The bonus is I am learning to play a variety of Solitaire games versus the one game I knew. LOVE IT !!!”
Do you play games on your Kindle? Comment below and let us know.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.