Research poll says U.S. kids want a PS3, not a Wii

Attention mommy and daddy: Forget the college fund, your kid wants a PlayStation 3 for Xmas. And, if you don't get them one, they will hate you forever and you'll be forced to deal with years of drug abuse and illegitimate children. You don't want that on your conscience, do you?

According to poll results from the Weekly Reader Research, American children from ages 5-18 said "they would prefer to have" a PlayStation 3 over all the other systems. Be prepared, these results may shock you:

• 40% want a PS3
• 25% want an Xbox 360
• 22% want a Nintendo Wii
• 13% would rather have none (we'll call these the bastard children)

The study also reveals that girls don't like video game systems as much as boys -- holy crap what a shock. According to the poll, 23% of girls would rather have neither console, while only 3% of the boys would rather have none.

So, how many were polled? Here's the raw data: "This survey had 3,013 total respondents, 1,538 of which were boys, 1,475 of which were girls. 965 of the respondents were ages 5-9, 769 of them 10-12, 792 of them 13-15, and 487 of them 16-18."

Shocked? Surprised? I'm not. I've been saying for ages that the PlayStation is a much stronger brand name to the casual consumer than Wii. Only time will tell if these stats ring true as next-gen is finally ushered in.