A new study ("GenX2Z") from market research firm Anderson Analytics suggests that co-ed gaming – that is, games that appeal to both males and females and encourage them to play together – could be the next big opportunity for publishers.

Anderson surveyed a thousand college students across the U.S. and found that about two-thirds of college students today play video games. Not surprisingly, the vast majority of college gamers are male (82 percent of male students play), but there is a fairly large constituency of female gamers as well – 59 percent of female college students play.

With the rise of casual gaming in the last year or so, Anderson believes that co-ed gaming could be the next step. "This growing trend is due in no small part to the success of Nintendo Wii. Games that can attract the participation of both males and females are part of the casual gaming landscape," commented Jesse Chen, lead consultant for Anderson's GenX2Z youth-research group.

It's not a major trend yet – only about a quarter of college gamers play with the opposite sex – but according to the study, "the majority of the gamers expressed a desire to see games that are specifically designed to encourage co-ed gameplay, particularly offline."

Tom H. C. Anderson, managing partner of Anderson Analytics, points out that "this may be both a promising opportunity as well as quite a challenge for game makers since male and female gamers tend to be drawn to different genres."

It may be somewhat stereotypical to say that all males prefer violent shooters while females enjoy puzzle games, but Anderson's study found this assertion to be largely true. Males selected action/adventure games (70 percent), shooters (52 percent), sports games (48 percent) and strategy games (47 percent) as their favorite genres, whereas females chose puzzle games (55 percent), party/family fun (46 percent) and rhythm (33 percent) games. That said, there is some overlap, as 49 percent do like action/adventure and 40 percent like strategy games.

In terms of playing habits, the average college student spends six hours a week playing video games during the school year. Six percent of students admitted to spending more than 15 hours a week gaming during the school year. Even though gaming is quite popular, Anderson found that it still takes a backseat to the old, passive pastime of simply watching TV. On average, students spend nine hours a week watching TV. Furthermore, most gamers said that when they're not playing, they'd most likely be watching TV.