世論 What Japan Thinks

With many Japanese companies paying winter bonuses at the end of week, this might be a good time to look at a recent survey reported on japan.internet.com and conducted by Cross Marketing Inc into portable games machines.

Demographics

Over the 21st and 22nd of November 2007 300 members of the Cross Marketing online monitor group successfully competed a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split exactly 50:50 male and female in each age group. These age groups were 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% in their fifties.

As I’ve probably mentioned too many times already (perhaps I should make an Amazon wish list so you can all buy me a present?) I really want to get the new red and black DS Lite. I have two Japanese learning titles waiting for me at home! Perhaps this weekend…?

One of the reasons, perhaps, for the good PSP figures in Q3 is that, as one can see from Q1, a lot of people already have a DS or DS Lite, therefore wanting a PSP makes sense. However, how many of them will actually go out and spend the money is open to debate.

Finally, in Q2, I get the impression that DS Lites are now in sufficient stock almost everywhere, but perhaps with the end of year spending spree coming up, it will get difficult to get your hands on again? You may want to cross-reference these figures with a similar question asked in March this year.

Research results

Q1: Which portable games machines do you have? (Sample size=300, multiple answer)

	Votes	Percentage
Nintendo DS Lite	106	35.3%
Pre-Advance Gameboy model	71	23.7%
Gameboy Advance	55	18.3%
Nintendo DS	46	15.3%
PSP (PlayStation Portable)	38	12.7%
Gameboy Advance SP	27	9.0%
WonderSwan	18	6.0%
Game Gear	10	3.3%
Gameboy Micro	5	1.7%
Other	7	2.3%
Don’t have a portable games machine	116	38.7%

Q2: Compared with before, how easy is it to get hold of a Nintendo DS Lite? (Sample size=300)

Still as difficult to buy as ever	4.3%
Better than a year ago, but still a problem to obtain	4.0%
Much better than a year ago, but still a slight problem to obtain	17.7%
If you have the money, you can soon purchase	36.0%
Don’t know	38.0%

Q3: Which portable games machine do you want to buy the most? (Sample size=300)

Nintendo DS	6.7%
Nintendo DS Lite	23.3%
PSP	22.3%
Other	1.7%
Don’t want any	46.0%