Analyst: The PlayStation 3 Could Dominate The Holidays

[Kenny]

MikeB said:

Kenny said:

MikeB said:

@ Kenny

According to for instance Nielsen Media Research is especially popular amongst boys aged 6 -11 and women aged 25 - 34.

With regard to the kids this is not a surprise, according to Nintendo the GameCube was far more dominated by kids. Similar average age does not per se mean the demographics are similar.

For example if you have one console which is especially popular amongst people aging 24-34 with the average age 28. And you have another console which is popular amongst 6-12 year olds as well as 70+ year olds, with the average age 28 but very few people actually being in ther 20s or 30s, you will run into trouble designing a game geared towards the average age group.

So, if I'm not mistaken, you believe that the average age distribution actually represents the middle ground between two extremes of the old and the young, meaning a bipolar distribution with few people who are actually 28.  However, a careful look at Nielsen's chart eliminates that possibility: The 55+ category for Wii owners account for 1.4% and 8.8% of playtime for the male and female groups, respectively.  This is certainly higher than the PS360's proportions (0.3%/1.5% for 360 and 1.0%/5.1% for PS3), but they are by no means even close to the size needed to create the bipolar distribution that you're suggesting.

 

If you look at that chart it shows exactly what I stated. The example in my post given above, is of course just an example.

Looking at the data we see a large difference with regard to console demographics despite Nintendo's claim of similar average age.

With regard to the Wii, the biggest age group are  6-12 year old boys and a good majority of male users is under 18. On the other hand, the biggest age group on the PS3 is 18 to 34 year old males, this age group by itself already represents a vast majority of male users.

With regard to females, like I stated in the past the Wii is remarkably popular amongst all age groups. Actually just as many 35+ ladies seem to be playing as underage girls. This is remarkable, but especially in the US there seems to have been a hype on for example lady targeted talkshows (Wii Fit, Brain training and such). Not so with regard to most females using the PS3, again the 18 to 34 age group dominates just like with regard to males.

You have to keep in mind, the Nielsen numbers are proportions.  If we accept that the percentage of time spent is an accurate reflection of the audience, as we seem to have done implicitly so far, the end result looks like this: Even if the 18-34 male audience size is only 29.3% on the Wii vs 59.3% on the PS3, the fact that there are more than twice as many Wii systems out there as PS3 systems would indicate that, in absolute terms, the 18-34 male group is in fact bigger on the Wii than the PS3 - only somewhat larger, but larger nevertheless.  The fact that the Wii has a much greater draw on the younger audience, and a somewhat greater draw on the older audience doesn't change that.