Just before the New Year Mobile Marketing Data Laboratory published a survey of the actual use of smartphone apps in 2013, with this report focusing on the questions regarding game app usage; other questions were regarding social network apps and what genres of apps people stopped using. I hope they later release that data also.
Demographics
Between the 18th and 21st of December 2013 560 members of the MMD Labo monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. All the sample were 20 years old or more, and all had smartphones.
I reckon my most-used genre is games, and Candy Crush Saga in particular. SNS, Google+ specifically, comes a close second, however.
All the game links below lead to the Android version, if there is one. Only two titles appear to be iPhone only. Read the rest of this entry »
Between the 28th and 30th of May 2013 1,098 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 54.0% of the sample were male, 13.4% in their teens, 15.4% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 17.3% in their forties, 14.8% in their fifties, and 17.9% aged sixty or older.
I have spent exactly zero yen on in-game purchases; the two games I play that have such features play perfectly well without any extra contributions. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s back to work for What Japan Thinks with this survey from December by goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into games machines and smartphone games, their second regular survey into this topic. I must have missed the first one, but this survey superceded a previous series that looked into just games machines.
Demographics
Between the 17th and 20th of December 2012 1,067 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.1% of the sample were male, 16.2% in their teens, 18.7% in their twenties, 21.7% in their thirties, 15.9% in their forties, and 27.5% aged fifty or older.
My gaming is recently 100% smartphone based, and my solitary smartphone game is Andoku, a Sudoku clone with 800 standard boards (I’m just over halfway through), then another 3 sets of 800 boards of other game variants – I see the new version now has 10,000 boards, but also has adverts, so the paid-for and ad-free version will be worth it. The game’s surely going to outlast my smartphone, and I’m not sure if it will be possible to transfer my played state across to a new device. Read the rest of this entry »
According to a recent survey from Just Systems and reported on by japan.internet.com into social gaming, almost half the players had spent money on it, and 60% of them regretted their purchases!
Demographics
Between the 10th and 13th of August 2012 1,000 members of the Just Systems-affiliated FastAsk monitor group who played social games completed a private internet-based questionnaire. No further demographics were given.
My wife spends what is, I suppose, technically real money on social games. She is a member of a number of online survey sites, and rather than cashing out, she transfers saved points to social games, in particular Oshare Dorobo, (perhaps “The Elegant Thief”) a Dress-Up Barbie-type game where in order to complete some quests you need (or so she claims) to buy particular hairdos which are only available from a random vending machine that costs 300 yen per spin. It’s probably about 1,500 yen’s worth of points per month she gets through, and I wish she’d never told me about the month she won 5,000 yen’s worth of tokens… Read the rest of this entry »
japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey by goo Research into games machines, the second regular survey into this topic.
Demographics
Between the 26th and 29th of January 2012 1,073 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.3% of the sample were male, 15.9% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.5% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, and 28.0% aged fifty or older.
I’ve not really got much interest in buying any of them, but I’d like to find out more about the Wii U. Read the rest of this entry »
With a lot of money to be made these days in producing casual games, both single player and multiplayer online, this survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into social gaming was quite an eye-opener for me.
Demographics
Between the 16th and 20th of January 2012 1,077 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.6% of the sample were male, 16.6% in their teens, 18.0% in their twenties, 21.3% in their thirties, 16.1% in their forties, 15.9% in their fifties, and 12.2% aged sixty or older.
I play a couple of social games, but have never spent any money on them. On the other hand, my wife plays a few and although she doesn’t actually spend money as such, she earns points from various survey sites that can be transfered to partner social games.
There’s two social games being heavily advertised on television and in trains right now by major pop groups; first is EXILE doing Holy War Cerberus for GREE, then there’s TOKIO doing Doliland, also for GREE.
What Japan Thinks kicks off the New Year properly with a proper survey, this time from iShare, looking at portable gaming machines, a definition that stretches to include not just Nintendo-like devices, but also smartphones and tablets.
Demographics
Between the 22nd and 26th of December 2011 714 members of the CLUB BBQ free email forwarding service who owned and were interested in portable gaming machines completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 57.0% of the sample were male, 30.0% in their twenties, 49.9% in their thirties, and 20.2% in their forties.
My gaming device is my Android smartphone (Panasonic P-01D), and the only two games I have on it at the moment are Andoku (sudoku) and Nethack. I should really download Angry Birds (I’m still to play it on any device!), I suppose, but as I’m trying to keep my data charges down I don’t want to have adverts being fetched from the internet as I play! Read the rest of this entry »
With recent reports of Sony and rather surprisingly Nintendo too losing money, they undoubtedly have high hopes for their next generation of consoles, but this recent survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into games machines (the first in a new series of regular surveys) does not make good reading.
Demographics
Between the 17th and 19th of October 2011 1,083 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 53.3% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.9% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, and 27.3% aged fifty or older.
I wonder if just as people talk about a post-PC world where smartphones and tablets take the fore, are we also entering a post-console world? Zynga, the makers of FarmVille and other Facebook games are about to float at a valuation of $6 billion, and DeNA, the people who run the almost-exclusively Japanese gaming site Mobage had a turnover of about $1.5 billion (yes, dollars, not yen) last year with a profit ratio of about 50%! However, both these companies offer mainly pretty simple browser-based games using the freemium model – free to play, but with additional items available for a fee. Similarly, the iPhone and Android app stores price games very cheap and support them using either or both in-game advertising or paid-for additional items or levels. Thus, a separate console plus $30 or $40 per game looks not too good a deal. Read the rest of this entry »
With the Nintendo 3DS having been on sale since February of 2011, goo Ranking decided it was a good time to ask their monitor panel why they hadn’t bought a Nintendo 3DS.
Demographics
Between the 20th and 22nd of April 2011 1,110 members of the goo Research monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 60.5% of the sample were female, 10.8% in their teens, 16.2% in their twenties, 27.4% in their thirties, 26.4% in their forties, 9.3% in their fifties, and 9.9% aged sixty or older. Note that the score in the results refers to the relative number of votes for each option, not a percentage of the total sample. Also note that naturally those who had already bought a 3DS would not have answered the question.
My reason for not upgrading is that I haven’t even got round to playing the Nintendo DS we have lying around the house…
The seventh regular survey into consumer games machines by goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com also revealed that Nintendo’s machines are still the most popular in Japan.
Demographics
Between the 6th and 8th of January 2011 1,093 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.5% in their teens, 18.3% in their twenties, 21.4% in their thirties, 16/3% in their forties, and 27.5% aged fifty or older.
As there’s nothing I can graph in this survey, instead here’s the first match on YouTube for Nintendo:
The survey also noted that in the US the various Nintendo DSs had sold about 47 million, and the Wii around 34 million.
I’ve not seen the Nintendo 3DS in real life, but the Sharp LYNX mobile phone uses similar technology to do its 3D, and it does work rather well, although I’m not sure how trying to use 3D in a moving train will be, although I suspect that at least I would get motion sickness from it; One Seg television is enough eye (and stomach) strain for me. Read the rest of this entry »
Just before the New Year Mobile Marketing Data Laboratory published a survey of the actual use of smartphone apps in 2013, with this report focusing on the questions regarding game app usage; other questions were regarding social network apps and what genres of apps people stopped using. I hope they later release that data also.
japan.internet.com reported on an interesting survey from goo Research looking at 
It’s back to work for What Japan Thinks with this survey from December by goo Research, reported on by japan.internet.com, into 
According to a recent survey from 
japan.internet.com recently reported on a survey by goo Research into 
With a lot of money to be made these days in producing casual games, both single player and multiplayer online, this survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into 
What Japan Thinks kicks off the New Year properly with a proper survey, this time from iShare, looking at 
With recent reports of Sony and rather surprisingly Nintendo too losing money, they undoubtedly have high hopes for their next generation of consoles, but this recent survey from goo Research and reported on by japan.internet.com into 
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