Japanese consumers losing interest in Wii U, PS Vita

A recent survey conducted shows Japan is losing interest in the Wii U and PlayStation Vita.

Taking their third look at games machines, particularly 'next-gen' consoles, goo Research has discovered interest in the new devices are declining among Japanese consumers.  In a recent survey, conducted between April 23-26, goo Research online monitor group completed a private internet-based questionnaire.

Among the 1,083 people surveyed, 701 (64.7%) said they owned at least one video game console.  From that group, 61.6% said they already owned a Nintendo DS or another iteration of i, including the 3DS, followed by PlayStation 2 (50.5%), Nintendo Wii (50.1%), PlayStation Portable (32.4%), and PlayStation 3 (28.1%). Only 18 people (2.6%) said they owned a Vita.

Perhaps the most intriguing results, and startling if you happen to be Sony or Nintendo, is that interest in the PlayStation Vita and Nintendo Wii seems to be on the decline.

When asked "Do you think you would want to buy a PS Vita?" only 7.8% of the 1065 people said they did.  31.7%  responded that they were curious about the Vita, but did not plan to buy one.  The other 60.5% said they had no interest in buying one, an increase of about 5.2 percentage points since the previous survey.

Now, the Vita has been out in Japan since 2011, so consumers are already aware of its capabilities and the games available for it.  Not to mention sales for Sony's handheld console have been mediocre at best so this really doesn't come as much of a surprise. The Wii U, on the other hand, seems to be in a bit of trouble.

When asked a similar question if they plan on buying a Wii U, only 7.1% of the 1,083 people asked said they wanted to buy one.  33.5% were interested, but don't plan on buying one.  The remaining 58.4% don't want to buy a Wii U at all, an increase of 6.9% over the last survey conducted.

This, of course, could change over the year as Nintendo begins to unveil more about their relatively mysterious Wii U console due out later this year.  It's no surprise that people aren't planning on buying one, they don't really know much about it aside from it using a tablet controller.

Granted, this survey size is relatively small in the grand scheme of things, but it's definitely something Nintendo and Sony should keep an eye on.

[What Japan Thinks]