The first time I read this, I groaned, recognizing this as instant “Nintendo is for kiddies!” Fodder. Then I thought about it for a while and realized what they’re saying is actually good news:
Asked to identify the three “coolest” brands, 42 percent of respondents 8 to 12 years old chose Nintendo, while 36 percent think Disney is among the coolest.
I thought back to my first experiences with the NES – I was about 11 years old. Nintendo was cool. I was firmly in Nintendo’s camp in the Nintendo vs. Sega battle. The fact that 42% of these kids are associating Nintendo with “cool” means they are growing up with Nintendo! They fact that they recognize Nintendo as a brand is positive. I’ve said before that Nintendo should embrace this reaction and run with it. Kids love Nintendo. Even 21% of the 13-17 year olds cite Nintendo as cool (tied with Sony, the perpetually cool company). Hopefully this will foster interest in the Revolution and a new generation of video-gamers will hold Nintendo in the same regard as those of us who grew up with it.
I noticed that Xbox was missing from these lists. They did ask the kids about “Brands” so that may explain why. Nevertheless, it doesn’t appear that Microsoft is cool with kiddies. Very interesting…
Botswana says
There is really nothing wrong with Nintendo being perceived as being mostly for kids. Besides, some of the games can be crazy fun. I’m a 31 year old man, and yet I do play Super Smash Bros. without the kids in the room from time to time.
I do think it’s interesting that the Microsoft brand is not known by kids. Granted, the X-Box was always targeted at an older audience. Still, there is some power in having kids pester their parents to buy them games. Seems like they are ignoring a valuable market segment. Number of titles on the X-Box I’ll let my kids play? ZERO. Everything they can use is on the PS2 or Gamecube.
Cabbage says
It doesn’t really surprise me that kids have never heard of Microchrist. They aren’t really interested in the games that the Xbox boasts. Kids would rather play games like Super Smash and Super Mario Kart.
Ps. I’m not saying that Nintendo is for little kids. I love super smash brothers.