It's a given that videogames in general are still dominated by men, but that doesn't mean women aren't pushing men into the background in at least one facet of the business. A story has just come out that states that women gamers could apparently make or break and help determine the course of the mobile phone games industry based on their habits of play since they dominate the market.

From the article:

Robin Taylor grew up playing marathon nights of Crazy Eights, backgammon, and chess with her parents. Today when the 45-year-old Brockton mother of six can spare a moment, she loads a round of solitaire on her BlackBerry phone.

"I just want to keep my mind going," Taylor said. "I do 10 things at a time."

Cellphone solitaire doesn't take the 100 hours that full-fledged electronic fantasy games can require, but cellphone carriers and game publishers are betting that those five minutes could turn gaming on cellphones and PDAs into a billion-dollar industry. While the action-heavy console world of shooter games and buxom babe warriors appeals to many men, women are driving about two-thirds of mobile gaming revenue by playing classics like Tetris and Mahjong.

Women make up 59 percent of all consumers who play games on cellphones, according to Parks Associates, a research firm. And they drive more than 60 percent of the revenue in almost every genre of mobile games, according to research firm Telephia Inc . The exception is in action and adventure, where men are the chief players.

Game marketers say the cellphone's ubiquity and casual nature make mobile gaming popular among women, who are less likely to shell out several hundred dollars for a console like the PlayStation 3 or the Xbox . Some mobile games are free. Others can cost from $3 to $9, and the payment model varies widely. Some games require a one - time payment or subscription.

Read the rest of the article over at Boston.com