A study commissioned by Nintendo finds that many baby boomers and grandparents want tech gifts, including handheld games.Forget Fruitcake - 'Gray Gamer' Study Shows Grandparents Prefer Tech Toys
52% of Grandparents and 68% of Baby Boomers Want Tech Products for the Holidays
REDMOND, Wash., Dec. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- If you're planning to buy grandma a fruitcake or silk flowers for the holidays, think again. A new survey conducted by Harris Interactive(R) and commissioned by Nintendo of America revealed that 52 percent of grandparents and 68 percent of baby boomers who celebrate the holidays would be excited to receive a technology product as a gift this holiday season. And at least half of that group (27 percent of grandparents and 34 percent of baby boomers) said they would like to receive a portable video game system, such as a Nintendo DS(TM) Lite, this year.
"These results confirm that even as folks get older, they still want the same cool tech toys as everyone else," says George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. "A 2006 survey by the Entertainment Software Association revealed that 25 percent of all gamers are 50 or older. Fortunately, we have titles like Brain Age for Nintendo DS to satisfy all the grown-up kids on your shopping list."
Nintendo continues to reach out to new audiences, including grandparents and baby boomers, with games like Brain Age(TM): Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day. The hit game, made for the hand-held Nintendo DS Lite system, helps users keep their minds sharp while they have fun with a variety of word, number and memory puzzles. It was the hit of the AARP's recent "Life@50+" expo and attracted many grandparents to Nintendo World in New York for a Grandparents' Day battle of the brains. Baby boomers and seniors worldwide use it daily as a fun way to keep their minds sharp.
Brain Age is a part of Nintendo's Touch Generations(TM) line, which is designed specifically to appeal to video game novices. For more information about Brain Age, visit www.BrainAge.com.
About the survey:
Harris Interactive conducted the survey on behalf of Nintendo by telephone within the United States between Oct. 27 and Oct. 30, 2006, among 1,025 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, geographic region and race were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. With a pure probability sample of 1,025, one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results would have a sampling error of +/- 3 percentage points. Sampling error for the sub-samples of parents (n= 654), grandparents (n= 399) and baby boomers (n= 380) would be higher and would vary. However, that does not take other sources of error into account.