Japanese losing interest in next-generation games machines

goo Research recently took their third regular look at games machines, and according to the report on japan.internet.com, interest in the newest devices is waning.

Demographics

Between the 23rd and 26th of April 2012 1,083 members of the goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire. 52.8% of the sample were male, 16.3% in their teens, 18.2% in their twenties, 21.2% in their thirties, 16.3% in their forties, and 28.0% aged fifty or older.

The article doesn?t report the question I would like to hear answered, why people are not interested in the new devices. For the PS Vita and Xperia PLAY, is it that normal smartphones do the job well enough, and with various surveys pointing to the majority of those in their twenties now carrying smartphones, a prime target for Sony already derives enough fun from their iPhone, Galaxy or other big-seller?

Research results

First of all, people were asked what games machines they owned. 64.7% of the sample, or 701 people, had at least one, and from that group 61.6% had a Nintendo DS of one form or other (bog standard, lite, i, LL, 3DS, etc), 50.5% had a PlayStation 2, 50.1% a Wii, 32.4% a PlayStation Portable, 28.1% a PS3, and so on down the ranks. However, for the PlayStation Vita, released in December last year and having sold 1.2 million units worldwide, just 2.6% of these 701, or 18 people, 1.7% of the original sample owned one, up just 0.2 percentage points since the previous survey three months ago. Even worse, for the Xperia PLAY SO-01D from NTT docomo, not one single person surveyed owned one!

Next, excluding the 18 PS Vita owners from the first question, the following were asked.

Q1: Do you think you would want to buy a PS Vita? (Sample size=1,065)

Want to buy	7.8%
Don?t want to buy, but interested in it	31.7%
Don?t want to buy at all	60.5%

The not interested group has increased 5.2 percentage points since the previous survey. The report noted that a new colour and a Hatsune Miku collaboration is due out in August, which perhaps accounted for some of the interest in the product.

Q2: Do you think you would want to buy an Xperia PLAY SO-01D? (Sample size=1,083)

Want to buy	2.8%
Don?t want to buy, but interested in it	17.5%
Don?t want to buy at all	79.8%

The not interested group has increased 5.0 percentage points since the previous survey.

Q3: Do you think you would want to buy a Wii U, due out some time this year? (Sample size=1,083)

Want to buy	7.1%
Don?t want to buy, but interested in it	33.5%
Don?t want to buy at all	59.4%

The not interested group has increased 6.9 percentage points since the previous survey.

Read more on: goo research,ps vita,so-01d,wii u,xperia play

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