According to a new report from The NPD Group, console cross-ownership among Wii owners in the U.S. is fairly low. Wii owners, who represent 32 percent of all gamers, for the most part stick to Nintendo's console. Only 14 percent of Wii owners also own a PS3, while 26 percent also own an Xbox 360.
On the other hand, PS3 owners (who comprise just 10 percent of all gamers) tend to purchase all three systems. 42 percent of PS3 owners also have a Wii and 34 percent also own an Xbox 360. As for the Xbox 360 owners (who represent 20 percent of all gamers), 42 percent also own a Wii and 18 percent also own a PS3.
These figures seem to back up what we've been saying all along about core gaming on Wii. Core gamers likely have either a PS3 and/or an Xbox 360. If they also own a Wii (42 percent do), then they're not necessarily looking for core gaming experiences on that platform because they already have that on 360/PS3.
That's not to say that core gamers can't enjoy more "casual" experiences too. In fact, looking at offline gaming preferences, while NPD found that Family-oriented games topped the list for Wii (followed by Racing and Sports games), for Xbox 360, Family-oriented was actually tied with Action/adventure at number one as the most commonly played genres. For PS3 gamers, Action/adventure and Racing top the list of commonly played genres to play offline. “This report helps to debunk the commonly held belief that casual-type genre games are primarily enjoyed by less serious gamers. This clearly shows that PS3 and 360 users also participate with these genres quite often, even if shooters remain the most commonly played online genre,” said NPD industry analyst Anita Frazier.
Another interesting finding from NPD's report was that word of mouth has become crucial to game marketers. 41 percent of all gamers said they rely on word of mouth above everything else to get their video game information. "While this varies from one platform to another, all current generation platforms, including portables, rely on word of mouth above all other information sources, followed by hands-on play at friends' and/or relatives' homes at 31 percent. Magazine and online ads, as well as incentives/coupons and social networking sites are the least influential to gamers, with as little as five percent of all gamers using the latter for information," NPD noted.
Game marketers would be wise to pay attention to this trend, as it really emphasizes the importance of good viral marketing to get positive word of mouth spreading early on in a campaign.
