The XBox is for Granny – why we're buying our grandparents games consoles

You’d have thought scented candles were more likely to have ended up in Granny’s Xmas stocking than an Xbox or the Nintendo Wii, but it seems that 1 out of 10 of us either have bought our grandparents a gaming console or are thinking of doing it this year, according to research by www.MyVoucherCodes.co.uk.

Consoles have been aimed at a youth market, but the benefits for the elderly are obvious. Games can keep your mind sharp while entertaining you and there can be a social element to multiplayer games.

Movement based games like the Wii and the Kinect offer the chance for

But it also seems that oldies just want the games too. The survey asked those that said they would buy a games console for their grandparents to explain why. Here’s what they said:

“Just over a third, 35%, explained they were doing so to ‘encourage their grandparent to exercise more;’ whilst one in five, 22%, were doing so ‘to help stimulate’ their grandparent’s brain activity. The majority, 37%, were doing so simply because their grandparent wanted a games console.”

Sounds reasonable to me.

When I get old I’m just going play computer games aalll day long….