Forget Fruitcake - 'Gray Gamer' Study Shows Grandparents Prefer Tech Toys

REDMOND, Wash., Dec. 12, 2006 - If you're planning to buy grandma a fruitcake or silk flowers for the holidays, think again. A new survey conducted by Harris Interactive® 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 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: 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 line, which is designed specifically to appeal to video game novices. For more information about Brain Age, visit www.BrainAge.com.

The worldwide innovator in the creation of interactive entertainment, Nintendo Co., Ltd., of Kyoto, Japan, manufactures and markets hardware and software for its Wii, Nintendo DS, Game Boy® Advance and Nintendo GameCube systems. Since 1983, Nintendo has sold nearly 2.2 billion video games and more than 387 million hardware units globally, and has created industry icons like Mario, Donkey Kong®, Metroid®, Zelda and Pokémon®. A wholly owned subsidiary, Nintendo of America Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., serves as headquarters for Nintendo's operations in the Western Hemisphere. For more information about Nintendo, visit the company's Web site at www.nintendo.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. The full results are available on Nintendo's Online Press Room.

About Harris Interactive

Harris Interactive is the 12th largest and fastest-growing market research firm in the world. The company provides research-driven insights and strategic advice to help its clients make more confident decisions which lead to measurable and enduring improvements in performance. Harris Interactive is widely known for The Harris Poll, one of the longest running, independent opinion polls and for pioneering online market research methods. The company has built what it believes to be the world's largest panel of survey respondents, the Harris Poll Online. Harris Interactive serves clients worldwide through its United States, Europe and Asia offices, its wholly-owned subsidiary Novatris in France and through a global network of independent market research firms. The service bureau, HISB, provides its market research industry clients with mixed-mode data collection, panel development services as well as syndicated and tracking research consultation. More information about Harris Interactive may be obtained at www.harrisinteractive.com.