A recent survey of Japanese consumers about two upcoming systems might be cause for concern to executives at Nintendo and Sony. According to Japanese research firm goo Research, consumers aren't all that excited about either the Wii U or the PlayStation Vita. The firm surveyed 1,083 of its members and unearthed some interesting sample opinions on the upcoming products from both companies.
A little more than 10 percent said that they wanted to buy a PS Vita, and less than 10 percent were interested in purchasing a Wii U. More than half those respondents said that they weren't interested in either of the devices at all.
The survey was conducted between October 17 - 19, with half of those participants being male (53 percent). Around 16.3 percent were in their teens, 18.2 percent in their twenties, 21.9 percent in their thirties, 16.3 percent in their forties, and 27.3 percent were fifty years old or older.
Around 64 percent of respondents said they owned a games machine, with the DS being the most popular (62 percent, or 694 game owners), while 53 percent claimed they owned a PlayStation 2, 5.7 percent said they owned a Nintendo Wii, 34.3 percent said they owned a PSP, and 27.8 percent claimed ownership of a PS3.
Chances are that a lack of details on what titles will be available at launch is the cause of so much disinterest in both platforms.
Source: IndustryGamers
Comments
Re: Survey: Japanese Gamers Not Interested in Wii U, PS Vita
Part 1: <64 percent of respondents said they owned a games machine> <16.3 percent in their forties, and 27.3 percent were fifty years old or older.>
Meaning that about 35-40% of those surveyed don't have and wont care to have any console system whatsoever, Vita or Wii U not withstanding. If you put the question of console interest in proportion to those who already have consoles, and would be interested in consoles, it puts it closer to 16%, not 10%. (See the fun with statistics kids? Only 108.3 people out of 1083 (10%) want a Vita or U, but 108.3 gamers out of 694 (15.6%) are interested in one)
Part 2: <64% owned a DS> <53% PlayStation 2> <5.7% Nintendo Wii> <34.3% a PSP> <27.8% PS3>
More respondents own a PS2 than the PS3 and Wii combined, which means (barring the odd possibility that there are a lot of 360s owned by those surveyed) most of these respondents haven't even bothered getting the last console generation (which by the way averages at about 5 years old, plenty of time to get one cheap), so why would they bother with the newest one. Also the very low rate of Wii ownership likely points to the low interest in the Wii U.
I also disliked the exclusion of the 360 and the 3DS in this survey. The 360 numbers wouldn't matter as much, although they would be interesting to see. But the 3DS numbers could give some insight towards the vita.
Just my $0.02
P.S. axiomatic; when I read your comment about the touchdown spike, I started thinking of Lonely Island's Threw It on the Ground.
Re: Survey: Japanese Gamers Not Interested in Wii U, PS Vita
The Vita is a matter of people being burned once with the PSP. Terrible controls, poor games, UMD... Hopefully the Vita addresses all those, but of course people are hesitant.
Re: Survey: Japanese Gamers Not Interested in Wii U, PS Vita
The Vita reason are simple. Sony is just sucking wind lately.
But the Wii U problem I see is durability. Kids are tough with toys. Is that Wii U controller with the display built in going to survive a touchdown spike (toss on to the ground) of the controller when my son scores a touchdown in Madden 13? I'm not so sure.