Gaming

With Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s Playstation 3 both now released in Japan, not forgetting Microsoft’s XBox 360, of course, japan.internet.com reported on an opinion poll conducted by Cross Marketing regarding next generation game consoles. They collected the opinions of 300 mobile phone users of their monitor group via a (mobile phone-targeted?) internet-based survey on the 6th and 7th of December. Their sample was split equally 50:50 male and female, and 20.0% aged 18 and 19, then 20.0% in their twenties, thirties, forties and fifties.

I wouldn’t put too much trust in the relative sales figures in Q1, as allowing for sampling error, the figures are almost indistinguishable, and since the Wii is barely out and the PS3 in short supply, just the very early adopters are being counted here.

For me, the most interesting result was those interested in the features of the console. Despite all the buzz before release about the PS3’s Cell chip, its advanced graphics, the Blu-ray disk drive and other advances, just 40% of those putting their money down were interested in doing so to get their hands on the new features. Conversely, the much more technically conservative Wii had 60% of the potential buyers after it, presumably mostly on the strength of the WiiMote.

This perhaps ties in with a talk I heard a couple of weeks ago given by Nintendo’s President Iwata on the philosophy behind the Wii. He wants to engage the casual gamer and the non-gamer much, much more than the vocal fan boy who scream for even more advanced bells and whistles. In addition, Sony sales may prove to be weak because of the relative lack of interest in parts that make it a rather expensive platform, and with the promise of future titles appearing to be the main stimulator of demand, if deadlines are missed or titles come out faster or better on the Wii, Sony may find their demand evaporating.
(more…)