A new report from the NPD Group finds that 15 percent of children in the U.S. want video game hardware or software this holiday season, with Nintendo systems and first-person shooter games dominating their selections.
Video games represented the second-most popular category of desired gifts in NPD's recent Kids Industry Data Service (KIDS) report, finishing behind generic toys but ahead of categories including consumer electronics, books and "other entertainment."
Among those children requesting gaming hardware, Nintendo's Wii and DS systems each represented 22 percent of all requests. The Xbox 360 represented 18 percent of requests and the PlayStation 3 accounted for 7 percent, with the remainder falling into a more generic "other" category.
Treyarch/Activision's Call of Duty: Black Ops and Bungie/Microsoft's Halo: Reach were the most popular individual items on children's wish lists, despite both games' M ratings from the ESRB.
The report cited Kinect as children's most-desired accessory, though accessories as a whole made up only 6 percent of gamers' requests.
A separate Purchase Drivers Report from NPD suggests the majority of gaming gift purchases were made based on a specific request from the recipient, rather than a random selection by the giver. Parents buying games for their own children represented the most common gaming gift-giving scenario in that report.
NPD's November KIDS survey was based on weekly online surveys of adults, who were asked about purchases made for children up to 14 years old. The sample was weighted based on gender, age, income, education, region, household size and composition to better resemble the total U.S. population.
Agree. Seems like a bad way to get survey results from children. Adults will tell you what they want, but not necessarily the wish and desire of their child.
It would be interesting to see what the other 85% of wants were. but another thing to consider is that many kids probably already own one or more of the consoles as they have been around for the last 6 years.
Anecdotally we're in agreement, this seems quite low. I don't know a single kid who isn't hoping for some kind of video game related product this holiday.
I just asked my co-worker what his kids want for christmas---first answer out of his mouth was video games for 10 year old---then the younger ones like things like legos, nerf toys, star wars collectibles. So there are some things out there--but even he though 15% was low. Hell, even my parents are buying me a video game for Christmas.
