Nintendo: Adults More Active On Wii Than Xbox 360, PS3

Nintendo of America president and CEO Reggie Fils-Aime is on a mission to dispel what he recently called "false assumptions" about the Nintendo Wii. One of those assumptions is that Wii owners do not play the console -- that once players tire of the pack-in Wii Sports, the console gathers dust. In an analyst Q&A session during E3 in Los Angeles last week, Fils-Aime cited a February survey from independent market research firm Ipsos that asked adult (18+) players how often they played their home console at least an hour or two a week. Fifty-one percent of respondents said they played their Wii at least one to two hours per week. That's higher than Microsoft's Xbox 360, which had 26 percent of players using the console for at least one to two hours a week, and 22 percent for Sony's PlayStation 3, the survey said. "The share of play on Wii…is higher than its share of ownership," Fils-Aime said. Conversely, Xbox 360's usage share was lower than its total hardware install base share. Fils-Aime also sought to dispel the notion that the Wii is losing sales momentum at an alarming rate. The same Ipsos survey found that in the following six months, a higher percentage of people plan to buy a Wii than competing consoles and iPhone and iPod Touch. "Not only is purchase intent effectively that of the PS3 and Xbox 360 combined," Fils-Aime said, "but this shows that as many people plan on buying a Wii…as the 360…iPhone…iPod and iPod touch put together." Fils-Aime said that the Ipsos survey took place before Nintendo announced it would include both Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort with the Wii hardware.