Girls do game. Data released by Nintendo of America at an industry event asserts the company's flagship system has attracted a significant majority of female gamers. President Reggie Fils-Aime said the Wii is the preferred system of 80 percent of these female players. However, these numbers may not be enough to fuel holiday sales.
At the BMO Capital Markets convention earlier this month, Fils-Aime featured two charts demonstrating the console's place in the market. The first chart estimated currently 11.7 million girls and women play gaming consoles in North America, compared to 33.3 million male gamers. The study distinguished "primary players" as those who are the most active console users in their household. Those who principally played handheld devices such as the DS were excluded from the study.
The second slide claimed 80 percent of these female "primary players" preferred the Wii. Competing console Xbox 360 came in second with 11 percent, followed by the PS3 at 9 percent.
According to Kotaku, "this didn't happen by accident," Fils-Aimes said. "It's the result of a deliberate attempt to expand the market."
While the announcement would bode well for Nintendo, industry analyst Doug Creutz recently stated to Gamasutra that he believes "the Wii bubble could be deflating." Citing research from a holiday survey conducted by his firm Cowen Group, Creutz said that among those who own more than one system, only 23 percent consider the Wii to be their primary platform.
These core gamers, Creutz projects, will be the primary consumers for new video games entering the holiday season, and these shoppers will likely buy fewer titles for the Wii. Casual gamers, who Creutz believes make up the Wii's main user base, are less likely to purchase new video games during unfavorable economic times, he says.
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