Games Industry Wire

Japanese gamers say “Price is no object”

by Kiven on January 18th, 2008

TOKYO (AFP)–Japanese video-game lovers choosing a console care more about the games they want to play than the price, with Nintendo’s (7974.OK) Wii so far holding an edge in coolness, a survey said Thursday.

The poll of 3,422 gamers by product pricing site kakaku.com found that 49.2% said their top concern for picking a console was “because it’s compatible with the games they absolutely want to play.” Nearly 43% of others said they wanted to buy the console that’s most talked about, with a mere 6.1% foremost concerned about price.

Asked which machines they owned, one-quarter said the Wii, the popular Nintendo home console with an innovative motion-sensitive controller, and another quarter had the Nintendo DS double-screen portable machine.

Only 10% had the PlayStation 3, even though Sony Corp. (6758.TO) invested heavily in advanced graphics for the next-generation machine, which is more expensive than the rival Wii.

Another 10% picked Sony’s PlayStation Portable. The XBox 360 of U.S. computer giant Microsoft (MSFT) has struggled to seduce Japan, with only 3% of gamers saying it was their pick.

But asked which console they hoped to buy next, 28% chose the Wii and 27% picked the PlayStation 3.

The figures were in line with actual sales figures. Nintendo has sold some 3.63 million Wii units last year in Japan, while Sony sold 1.21 million PlayStation 3 machines. Both machines were launched at the end of 2006.

The Japanese have bought a mere 260,000 XBox 360 units since its launch by Microsoft at the end of 2005.

Source

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POSTED IN: 'Wire' Reports, Japan Games Industry