Survey: PSP Preferred by Japanese Men, DS Lite by Women

[wraggster]

Net Asia Co Ltd has announced results of its survey on the use of portable game consoles. The company conducted the Internet survey in Japan using mobile phones and received responses from 401 mobile phone users ranging from the age of 15 to 29.

Asked what portable game console they currently use the most, most male respondents (42.0%) cited Sony Computer Entertainment Inc's (SCE) "PlayStation Portable (PSP)" (excluding responses of "No specific console"). Second most cited (30.3%) was Nintendo Co Ltd's "Nintendo DS Lite," followed by the same Nintendo's "Nintendo DS" (16.8%).

Meanwhile, results were completely different with female respondents. Most respondents named the Nintendo DS Lite (52.2%) and the Nintendo DS (27.4%). These Nintendo DS-related two models constituted roughly 80% of all responses from female samples. Female respondents who answered the PSP, which was most popular among male respondents, only accounted for less than 10%.

When asked how often they use game consoles, most responses (36.6%) said "less than 1 day a week." Of the respondents who said they use game consoles more than once a week, "almost every day," "2 to 3 days a week," "4 to 5 days a week" and "1 day a week" accounted for 24.6, 15.1, 12.5 and 11.2%, respectively.

As for how long they use the console for videogames per day, most respondents (28.9%) said "1 hour" during weekdays, followed by "less than 15 minutes" (22.4%), "2 hours" (18.1%) and "30 minutes" (16.8%). Respondents who play portable videogames for "3 hours" to "more than 5 hours" per day totaled 13.8%.

When it comes to weekends, they generally play videogames longer than during weekdays, but most respondents (21.6%) still said "1 hour" as in weekdays. Responses of "3 hours," "2 hours" and "more than 5 hours" reached 18.5, 18.1 and 10.3%, respectively.

To a question asking if there is any variation in the frequency and time of playing videogames with portable consoles compared with a year ago, most general responses (33.9%) were "decreased," whereas 22.2% of all respondents said "increased."

Moreover, when the company asked where they use portable game consoles (multiple answers allowed), the majority (81.5%) answered "my room." Limited to males, in particular, the ratio rose to 87.4%. Next most cited was "the living room in my house" (50.4%).

Based on these results, Net Asia analyzed most people use their portable game consoles at home. Other responses included "train" (14.2%), "a fiend's/acquaintance's house" (11.6%), "outside home" (10.3%) and "car" (6.5%).

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20080410/150251/

[crookedmouth]

I take it there is not much of a Game Park(GP2X) following in Japan.

I was a little surprised by the % of people that played at a fiends house, 11.6% wow.

[Akoi Meexx]

I'm a bit muddled as to how it could be interpreted as the PSP being preferred over the DS/Lite as those two percentages add up to more than the PSP.

Or am I just misinterpreting it myself?

[warioswoods]

No, you are not misinterpreting it - the article headline is completely wrong. I saw this story on another gaming blog as well, with a similarly problematic headline, which the comments quickly corrected.

The DS is preferred over the PSP by both sexes -- but of course you have to add the numbers for both the phat and lite, since they divided it in the poll, unlike the PSP, which was only named as one entity, including both its variations. Also, many actually still prefer the DS phat due to its better grip for your hands; especially those that primarily use it at home and don't care about the reduced overall size of the lite. That accords with another finding of the survery, which is that handhelds are used overwhelmingly at home rather than out.