News story

New study provides reality check for serious games

London, UKLearning NewsCommelius Solutions

Virtual world style serious gaming environments are off the agenda for four out of every five learning professionals delivering training into the workplace today, according to a new study due for release next month.

Produced collaboratively by learning provider REDTRAY and benchmarking organisation Towards Maturity, the new study collates the thoughts, opinions and intentions of over 180 Learning and Development professionals across the UK. When asked about the live online learning systems they either use, or plan to use to deliver business training, less than 9% of the L&D leaders taking part in the study said that virtual worlds, immersive or avatar driven training resources were likely to be part of their company’s learning mix anytime soon.

Most mentioned areas for growth over the next 18 months were:
- virtual classrooms, where nearly 60% of learning professionals have planned for new investment or further development;
- virtual meetings, which 47% expect to use more, or introduce, in the coming months; and
- virtual conferencing, which 43% say they will take-up or develop further uses for across the business.

Vicky Jones, Managing Director at REDTRAY says, “Serious games have received a lot of media coverage in recent years. But despite the hype, the study seems to indicate that organisations are either not ready to embrace serious games as a way of delivering training; or it might be that the economic climate is dictating a need to prioritise their spending. Perhaps other technologies such as virtual meetings or virtual classrooms represent a smaller, more manageable step into the virtual space both for organisations and their learners.”

Issued today as part of the build up to October’s Harnessing Live Online Learning activities, the alarming statistic for the serious games industry is just one of dozens of new facts figures, statistics and insights scheduled for public release next month when the new study is published.

For more visit the Harnessing live online website.

Pre-order the new report and receive a special preview of the "Harnessing live online learning" report as soon as it’s available.

Book a spot at the live webinar and attend the "Harnessing live online learning" webinar on Wednesday October 5th to learn about the study and the results.

- ends -


Press Contact
For REDTRAY contact Aneta Sokolowska
T: +(44) 0207 024 4859
E: [email protected]

For Towards Maturity contact Giovanna Puma
T: +(44) 07764 561 782
E: [email protected]