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[DeaconKnowledge]

Wow, there are a lot of stupid comments in this thread already.

 

[Dilbert]

There are alot of ignorant comments about the different social classes in this thread.

Some rich people are frugal, some are lavish. Same goes for poorer people.

This man speaks the truth.

Honestly, the most interesting thing in the article was the breakdown on the percentage of playtime.

 

[Davidion]

There are alot of ignorant comments about the different social classes in this thread.

Some rich people are frugal, some are lavish. Same goes for poorer people.

Don't you know? Us folks who have some money only came to be that way because daddy gave it to us on a silver plate. We just got the Wii because we don't know shit about gaming and it was the hottest consumer item that we knew of.

 

[Davidion]

This makes perfect sense to me and informs my own anecdotal experience.

Intact families supporting (multiple) children old enough to play are certainly the Wii's bread and butter market. That suggests a pretty high HHI from the get go. Additionally, its status symbol as a quirky, yet awesome thing to own has hit the suburbs with great fury, but the "gangsta" crowd I keep seeing on my television are still going on about the 360 (sometimes PS3).

After years of volunteering in downtown Detroit, the logic of buying big ticket items just to have something to show for one's own poverty relies on those items being expensive enough to impress people. Wii doesn't do that, nor does it exude any sort of hardcore flavor, so I wouldn't be surprised if the neighborhoods I worked in were more slowly adopting the Wii than the other consoles. That demographic alone would surely be enough to skew the numbers as Nielson is reporting (assuming its reporting mean income, not median), since it's an inverted value curve:

The rich are buying the cheap solution that suits their needs, the poor are buying the expensive solution that suits theirs. It's no different than when I see 8 poor urban youths going in on an Escalade together, while my wife and I realize the value in appreciating investments and keep our 96 Chevy Corsica rolling.

Edit: Oh, they're putting boxes in homes? Well, no matter how hard Nielson tries, their samples are always going to skew to more affluent homes. I'd adjust down the 100,000 number by at least 20 grand for the fact that it's highly unlikely they're putting these things into defaulting rental properties of the bottom 25%.

You know, I read this a couple of times over, and while I agree with you on the adjustment for Nielson stats on the affluence dimension in general, those are some pretty damn inflammatory statements about how the rich and the poor spend their money. While conspicuous consumption does account for some of the spending patterns of certain social classes, the idea that this fully, or even close to, explains the dispersion of video game spending habits amongst different them is quite a huge leap.

In retrospect, the poorer friends of mine who have video games also have Wiis.

Fine line man, fine line.

 

[Gattsu25]

Huh? Nielson is the ****ing biggest MR company in the world, and you think they only do TV ratings?

It's like saying Microsoft only sells Windows and Office.

I never fucking said that you dolt. I asked *how* they did it regarding consoles

 

[JB1981]

Yuppies love the Wii. It's like having that flat screen. Or that iPhone. It's the "it" thing.

 

[linsivvi]

I never fucking said that you dolt. I asked *how* they did it regarding consoles

The fact that you bring TV into the conversation and even pondered "the Wii sends play information to advertisers" seems to imply that you're the dolt.

Nielson does the whole repertoire of research just like all other major MR firms.

 

[widgetraf]

why are some people comparing the wii to the ps3?

the wii has sold more, so thus it will be found more often.

edit: is this comapring the number of wii's in rich homes to wii's in poor homes or the number of wii's in rich homes relative to other consoles in rich homes?

 

[Deku]

The Wii fits the ideal of what next-gen gaming is to a lot of casual players and 'non-gamers' and these tend NOT to be 20 year olds working McJobs and spending 50% of their annual income on games. (and I'm sorry if some of you are offended by this)

 

[Hcoregamer00]

This makes perfect sense to me and informs my own anecdotal experience.

Intact families supporting (multiple) children old enough to play are certainly the Wii's bread and butter market. That suggests a pretty high HHI from the get go. Additionally, its status symbol as a quirky, yet awesome thing to own has hit the suburbs with great fury, but the "gangsta" crowd I keep seeing on my television are still going on about the 360 (sometimes PS3).

After years of volunteering in downtown Detroit, the logic of buying big ticket items just to have something to show for one's own poverty relies on those items being expensive enough to impress people. Wii doesn't do that, nor does it exude any sort of hardcore flavor, so I wouldn't be surprised if the neighborhoods I worked in were more slowly adopting the Wii than the other consoles. That demographic alone would surely be enough to skew the numbers as Nielson is reporting (assuming its reporting mean income, not median), since it's an inverted value curve:

The rich are buying the cheap solution that suits their needs, the poor are buying the expensive solution that suits theirs. It's no different than when I see 8 poor urban youths going in on an Escalade together, while my wife and I realize the value in appreciating investments and keep our 96 Chevy Corsica rolling.

Edit: Oh, they're putting boxes in homes? Well, no matter how hard Nielson tries, their samples are always going to skew to more affluent homes. I'd adjust down the 100,000 number by at least 20 grand for the fact that it's highly unlikely they're putting these things into defaulting rental properties of the bottom 25%.

You my friend are the only one who analyzed this with any sense of intelligence.

Good job.

 

[Crayon Shinchan]

What does the OP mean? More likely to find it in rich people's home than in poor people's homes?

more likely to find it in richer homes than the other two?

more likely to be found in richer homes than the other two, as a proportion of its sales?

 

[sedaku]

This explained the creation of WiiFit.

 

[Bowen_B]

I guess you're not familiar with product placement. It helps pay for production costs.

Yeah and it helps get the impressionable telly watching audience to buy your product.

 

[chaostrophy]

Maybe the people making that much money are working too many hours to have time to play longer, deeper games.

 

[Count Dookkake]

This reminds me of something Howard Stern once said (and someone probably said it before him): Poor people have nice cars, rich people have nice houses.

 

[Lucky]

Duh. Too bad it doesn't mean anything.

 

[JDSN]

Its a shame you poor people will never experience playing Wiitennis in a 62 inches HD screen and a home theater that may or may not work as a wine cooler too.

 

[Pristine_Condition]

True, but i would belive that people played Wii alot more than 4% when PS3 is at 3%.

Hmmmm. 3 million PS3s account for 3% of total playtime. 9 million Wiis account for 4% of total playtime. Seems to me like the PS3 users are having more fun .

I think it's USA only, so WiiS3 it's like 2:1 in number.. 4:3 in play time is not that weird when you consider the nature of both userbases.

Yeah, it seems like a statistical anomaly, until you read this, which explains it:

Average Gameplay Session Time by Console

PS3: 83 min.
Xbox 360: 61 min.
Wii: 57 min.

Still, the real item of note is PS2 getting the lion's share of all time on consoles at 42%.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

Wii numbers will pick up in a few years when 480p widescreen adoption is higher and the price drops to something reasonable like $299.

 

[jonezer4]

Nah
Everybody votes asks if you were glasses.

It asks if you wear glasses. No one was ever glasses.

 

[Walter Matthau]

I'm not sure I see the frugality in picking up a console as soon as its released when all games and accessories are at their maximum price.

 

[Kobun Heat]

 

[Rancid Mildew]

Let them eat cake!

 

[Gekkonidae]

Well if I hadn't spent $600 on a PS3 I'd be more affluent too.

 

[Scrow]

effluent found in affluent households

ha!

 

[Death_Born]

This poll result is obvious. More older adults tend to be richer, and they also buy more Wiis due to their "easier" control scheme and non-gamer friendly design. The average PS3 buyer on the other hand is a hard-core gamer who spends all their money on gadgets and wants the maximum graphics, and gamers are usually younger. 23-33 year olds are not usually very affluent, unless they have an inheritance or were business geniuses.