Japanese Survey Puts PSP In Front

Japanese newspaper Nikkei News has conducted a survey of 1,000 Japanese shoppers regarding their purchasing plans for the upcoming gift giving season (the most important part of which is in early January in Japan). Of those questioned, only 12.9 percent said they had any plans to buy a new console, with the majority of those indicating they would be purchasing the PSP. The choice of a PSP accounted for 33 percent of those questioned, followed by the Nintendo DS at 22.5 percent, the PlayStation 2 at 20.2 percent, the Game Boy Micro at 11.6 percent and the Xbox 360 at 10.1 percent. Regarding software, 60 percent of the original 1,000 questioned said that they would not be buying any new games during he season, with 32.2 percent saying they would be buying one to two, 5.6 percent three to four, 1.5 percent five to six, 0.3 percent seven to nine and 0.4 percent suggested they would be buying more than ten games. Although the original sample group was of a reasonable size, only 129 out of the original 1,000 actually suggested they would be buying a new console, which makes the percentage breakdown by format less useful. Even so, it is surprising to see the PSP leading the pack since it has been being outsold by the Nintendo DS in Japan since early spring, with a year-to-date lead in excess of 1 million units.