Slashdot Mirror
Gamers Don't Know Their Own Consoles
deadmantyping writes "Ars Technica reports on a survey of 6,260 responses which indicates that only 40 percent of PS3 owners knew that their console included Bluray. Apparently a large portion of gamers aren't aware of the non-gaming capabilities of their systems. Ars speculates that this might help explain Nintendo's apparent dominance in the console market since their introduction of the Wii."
Gamers don't know or care about non-gaming features in their gaming consoles! More at 11!
They bought a PS3 without realizing it had blu-ray?
Dear god... They must be mad.
-- Lattyware (www.lattyware.co.uk)
Blu-Ray isn't ubiquitous, no HD format is yet. There's nary a Blu-Ray market out there at this point, not something most people even know exists unless they go looking for it.
If blockbuster all of a sudden is half full of Blu-Ray disks, people will become very aware of the PS3's capabilities, just as they did with the PS2.
PS2 was a huge driving factor in the final surge of DVD uptake...but DVD's were known to all by that point.
People certainly read on the box that the PS3 supports Blu-Ray, but it means nothing except to very few. The HDDVD addon for the 360 is in a worse boat as that is it's ONLY function.
Me, I'm just waiting for Blu-Ray to catch on (or not). If it does, I'll buy a PS3, and it'll be my HD player of choice...just as my PS2 has been my sole DVD player for years now.
No Comment.
Most people that buy a Wii have no clue what the differences in the hardware specs are between the systems. They only look at the price tag.
One of the interesting quirks of the market is that if you position a device as a game machine, people will buy it as a game machine. Thing like the media it takes are secondary to the function the device is being sold for. So if you sell your machine as a game machine, expect that people will treat it as such and compare it to other game machines. Secondary features like the BluRay drive will only matter if the device compares favorably on its primary function.
Now if you position a device like the PS3 as a Sony's PlayStation Media Center, suddenly it looks like a good deal. It can play BluRay, PS1 games, PS2 games, and games "designed for the BluRay format". All for less than competing BluRay players.
It's too bad that Sony didn't do this. They might have had a better response if they had.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
While I LOVE all the things I can do with my 360 and my PS3 in terms of extra stuff beyond gaming, gaming is why I bought a GAMING CONSOLE. Yes, I do use them for things other than gaming, but honestly I would be very very happy if Microsoft and Sony had spent more money and R&D time in making their systems better gamingconsoles, and less of a multi-use piece of hardware.
It raises the functionality of the consoles, but I would much rather be paying less for less functionality. The less I shell out for the console, the more I can spend on the games...which is exactly why I want a gaming console in the first place.
Living With a Nerd
Two of my roommates keep forgetting that the Wii is backwards compatible with the Gamecube and are always lamenting that they should get a gamecube so we can play super smash brothers. It boggles my mind how many times I have told them that they can just play it on the Wii, and even demonstrated this to them and yet they keepforgetting. Time for new roommates.
Of the three current "next gen" consoles, it's kind of ironic that the most popular one with the party gamers is the one that *doesn't* do HD. Considering that the Wii's the one most geared towards groups of people standing in front of a large TV screen.
one thing interests the majority of consumers: games
Of course games are the primary reason people buy gaming system.
not only are people not using these functions, they're not even aware of them.
the higher cost of entry may be helping the PlayStation 3 in this respect.
Considering many games are cross platform, the PS2 is still on the market with new titles, and the PS3 is the most expensive system available, there is little justification to buying one at the moment.
the higher cost of entry may be helping the PlayStation 3 in this respect.
Since when does higher cost mean higher quality, regardless of what it can do?
How do they justify the price to themselves then? I mean, at least you have mediocre Blu-Ray movies to watch while the console stagnates and remains without games to play. Oh, I forgot, it's all marketing. People are sheep and like commercials. Sony doesn't even need current commercials, because all of the Playstation and Playstation 2 commercials already have it so ingrained in peoples' minds. They see a brand and feel the need to purchase it regardless of any factors.
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
How about even fewer gamers knew their 360 had HD graphics?
"50 percent of gamers in the study knew the system [PS3] featured high-definition graphics, compared to the 30 percent of gamers who knew about the high-definition function of the 360."
What does this also say about Blu-Ray only being successful because of the PS3? Only 40% of the PS3 owners account for all the Blu-Ray discs sold? What happens when the other 60% figure it out?
...however I sure would like to have more information about things like:
- can the controller be used wirelessly to control the playing?
- does the ps3 have an IR receiver so I can program my existing remote to control it like a stand-alone blue-ray player?
- does the ps3 support blue-ray profile 1.1 (with dual decoding)?
- how is the quality compared to a stand-alone player?
- does the ps3 have a digital out to feed to my receiver? (coax? optical?)
these are questions that right now have prevented me from purchasing one in favour of waiting for a combo blueray/hddvd player (if not I'd just get a ps3+x360 since they'd cost me the same in total and I'd have two consoles to boot). I have also found things like the following by perusing sites, things that should be made clear somewhere on sony's site
- the ps3 does play dvd movies
- the ps3 does NOT upscale dvd movies to 1080i/p
- the ps3 supports 1080p/24 starting from firmware 1.9
I think sony is trying hard to not position the ps3 as a blueray player with gaming capabilities, and holding back information like this is part of the game.
-- the cake is a lie
everyone is a clueless retard, except for you, of course.
anyone that has to blatantly flaunt their supposed superiority of intelligence usually lacks a good bit. (at least, according to my general observations)
i wonder how many of these same pedantic self proclaimed clerisy types were just itching to point out the fact that i am not using proper capitalization before reading this sentence.
If we assume that these figures apply to the population at large as Ars did when they speculated that this explains the Wii's dominance, then this means that 40% of the population is aware of PS3's BluRay capabilities. Yet they're not choosing to buy a PS3.
Because knowing the PS3 has BluRay doesn't cause an extra $350 to spontaneously appear in your wallet.
"Good value for what you get if you can/will use all of its features" does not translate into "I can afford to spend that much on a toy".
It's not complicated.
The enemies of Democracy are
I've been saying this all along. With many stories here on /. people say "But no one will care about the Wii because it can't do HD" and this kind of thing was my answer to that (although I'm surprised the numbers for HD game playing are THAT LOW). I submitted this myself yesterday (although this write-up looks better and sources Ars). I have a Wii plugged into my HDTV and love it. I don't have a 360 yet (thinking of getting one) and the PS3 doesn't have any games I care about yet (except for MGS4, but that won't be out for a while).
This shouldn't be surprising. The TV ads for the 360 and PS3 don't mention HD, and Joe Bob buys an HDTV and watches over-the-air analog stations and thinks that's HD.
Mostly, I'd say this is a failure of marketing. That said, it's a good shot against the "no one wants non-HD stuff" argument.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Microsoft and Sony don't know their customers.
I just found out a few days ago that my grandmother, who is in her 70s, used a Nintendo Wii at my brother's house. She is a golfer, and she played Wii Golf for her first time, and she proceeded to play extremely well, and easily beat my brother.
So, Wii is full of win because my non-gaming grandmother can play, and succeed, at a video game without a bunch of hassle.
It wouldn't matter to her if it could play movies or dispense kittens, and I'd imagine those things don't matter much to others, either. Though, kittens would be cute.
Most iPod owners don't know that you can play games on their iPod.
Most iPod owners don't know that you can load Linux on their iPod.
The the primary function of a device is the the most important function for the people that buy that device.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
PS3 comes with a Blue-Ray ? ? Can I download it for my 360? ;)
Does anyone doubt that Nintendo is currently winning this generation console war? Saying that Nintendo is apparently dominant is like saying that the US is apparently occupying Iraq.
"Ars speculates that this might help explain Nintendo's apparent dominance in the console market since their introduction of the Wii."
Yeah forget the fact that the Wii might actually be worth getting, and has lots of fun games, or that the PS3 costs more then double the price of a Wii. The Wii is dominating because no one knows that the PS3 has blueray!
"just as my PS2 has been my sole DVD player for years now."
Look at the word in bold that you claimed GP didn't mention.
Then STFU.
"There's nary a Blu-Ray market out there at this point"
How in tarnation did those 30 Blu-Ray movies get on my bookshelf?
Most Wii developers don't even know that it supports progressive scan and widescreen!
I was shocked to learn recently that my Nintendo Wii has a wireless controller! And that my "Wii" game collection is actually just pirated Gamecube titles repackaged for the Wii!
I'm so embarrassed.
org.slashdot.post.SignatureNotFoundException: ewg
I didn't know my Blue-ray player was also a game machine!!!
I know someone who bought a PS3 without realizing it had...
well...
anything other than hype.
I'm not kidding. I swear to God, this kid brought the PS3 home, plugged it in, hooked it up to his standard-definition TV, and used it to play a PS2 version of Tomb Raider. At least, I think it was PS2 -- it might have been PS1. He was crowing about his "next-generation game console" experience, but hell, he wasn't even using the "internal memory card" (store PS2 savegames on the hard drive) because he didn't know how, and thought he'd have to buy something. The only conceivable improvement in his experience was the wireless controller, but with such a short cord (for when the battery dies) and no rumble, the advantages are kind of dubious.
This is someone who already had a PS2.
Every now and then, his brother rents a PS3 game and brings it home, but he mostly uses it to play PS2 games.
Now, the one thing I will say in his favor is that he is actually retarded. He actually does have a real, physical, chemical imbalance in his brain. So in a way, I kind of can't blame him for being such an absurd Sony fanboy...
But looking at him kind, I kind of have to wonder, what do the whole, sane, and intelligent people who bought a PS3 have to say for themselves? Especially if they didn't realize it had blu-ray?
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
I'm a reasonable proficient geek, and I'm guilty of this.
Does my Wii play MP3s?
Does my Xbox 360 do JPEG photo shows?
Answer: I don't care.
Xbox 360 as a backup DVD player has come in useful, but I have enough multipurpose gadgets that I don't bother keeping track.
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
Actually, come to think of it, many DVD players do a ton of other things, from playing CDs to doing JPEG photo galleries to playing obscure video formats favored in Europe to doing MP3s, and most of the owners just don't care. So it's a mistake to think this is just about video games.
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
...so I guess 60% of Playstation gamers don't read Slashdot or Digg.
One of the biggest reasons for spending $500-$600 dollars on a PS3 is that it plays BluRay. Period. If there are poeple out there that would actually buy a gaming console for that much for no other reason that it says "Sony" on the box, without nearly as many refined games as the X-Box, or as fun as some on the Wii then they have far too much money on their hands, and they are too dumb to realize it.
BluRay players alone are still around $500. That's the only reason to pay that much for a PS3.
Seriously, that stat seems highly dubious to me...
"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge." - Daniel Boorstin
I hope I'm not the first person to post that the PS3 also has native Linux functionality. If I recall correctly, a custom version called Yellow Dog Linux is included on the PS3, or is available for download. A Youtube search for PS3 Linux shows many videos of people installing Fedora Core and other distributions. It seems that more people are ignorant of the PS3's potential as a desktop computer than its ability to play blu ray titles.
I've heard many people complain about the cost of the PS3, many of which are shocked and refuse to believe that it openly supports Linux.
Heck, look at the Folding @ Home data! 80,000 PS3s completed as many units of work as 2 million desktop computers (or something like that--long time since I read the article).
"I mean seriously, we spent billions in research to create the ultimate movie-music-email-web-OS-media center-life support device and billions more in marketing costs selling it to people, and all of a sudden these 'gae-mehrs', as they call themselves, swoop in and buy it for this piece of shit 'electronic video display game supplement' feature we tossed in at the last second. I mean, who the hell do these 'gae-mehrs' think they are, anyway? They really should show some respect; don't they know what a game console is for?"
Demanding constant attention will only lead to attention.
Bah, forget it....
Mario Party 8 and Rayman look pretty damn good on my 30" 1080i CRT, this however has everything to do with the "art" and not the "graphics". Not to mention after everyones had a few drinks they could be sprites and it would still be just as fun. Super Paper Mario looks gorgeous, especially at 480p, and its all thanks to the artwork. Really though, i'm playing a GAME, if i want realism i'll go outside. Do we really want all games to be photo-realistic? Resident Evil 4 for the wii looks pretty damn good, expecially since the cut-scenes and things are rendered so they can be displayed in the native 480p, it may not be Resistance on the PS3 with HDMI, but if i'm killing zombies for a couple of hours, do i want it to be that realistic? I'd probably be sick.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
All the idiots with PS3s who buy Blu-Ray movies but dont have HDTVs? I work in the electronics dept in a retail store, and we get a lot of that. Even worse is people buying movies they've never even heard of only because they're Blu-Ray.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
kind of curious as to where exactly this survey was taken or what demo. they were surveying.take your questions to 18-30 year old gamers in japan and watch your statistics skyrocket.
Most people that buy a Wii have no clue what the differences in the hardware specs are between the systems. They only look at the price tag.
If not for the controller, that would hit it right on. Without it, you just have a GC refresh - something very unremarkable for a new console. You can only go so far with gameplay until non-HD graphics is a liability.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
The mainstream isn't willing to pay over $300 for a game system. There's a price point at which people will consider buying, and Nintendo has set it. It is $250.
Add to that that the Wii has a novel set of controls to generate buzz, and you've got a runaway success.
That's why the 360 "core system" is coming down to $300. Microsoft finally gets it. They're serious about competing.
We hard-core gamers are a minority niche market. We're the only ones who care about all these "cool features." That shouldn't blind us to the fact that including all these features has been a marketing mistake. When the masses go to buy junior a 2nd-1/2 generation system for Christmas, it's going to be the Wii. It doesn't matter that the other two are 3rd gen. The Wii is cheap, it's small, and it lets poppa practice his golf swing.
The mass market is where consoles make money, not the niche. Installed base is everything. MS just figured this out when they set their new prices. We'll see how long it takes Sony.
There is no cause for snobbery towards those who don't know all the features of their Frankenstein box when all they wanted to buy was a game console. What we should be ridiculing them for is overpaying for what they believe is "just a game console."
--
Toro
Why did I glance at the article title and read "Gamers Don't Know Their Own Assholes?"
Also, unless you have a decent TV, who cares that it comes with a high fi format. It is almost like hunting for a Beta Max movie 5 years after VHS came out. Yeah, Blockbuster has 5 movies on a shelf somewhere, but you'd have to go dust them off to see which ones they are. IMHO, until the HD war is won, most people won't commit, and won't have a reason to care which format their console plays. It is almost like getting a free fist full of Riche Marks right after WWII started, great if they win, useless if they don't.
wikipedia is an encyclopedia that anyone can edit!!!
wonder how many people know the wiimote has a speaker in it...
Considering that the average video gamer is, what, like 14? 15? -- I see no surprise here.
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
Who they asked is as important as what they asked. IF they did an exit poll of PS3 buyers and asked "hey do you know what blu-ray is?" the 40% who are clueless parents buying it for their kid would obviously say "huh?".
"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
And when you gaze long enough into the code, the code will also gaze into you.
I don't buy a gaming console to be all sorts of other crap; I buy it to play games.
Nintendo's success comes from their decision to sell a good toy at a reasonable (albeit sorta high) price for a toy, while their competition is trying to sell a toy at a ludicrously high price, claiming that it's a really good deal for the incredible general-purpose computer and movie machine that it really is... But since the market is the toy market, that's sorta running into issues.
Maybe they shoulda called it the MovieStation.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
who the fuck buys this stuff without knowing squat about what it can do? but, i guess it could be worse: (parody)"75% of console owners had no idea their gaming consoles can play video games"
stuff
That this is even a story on slashdot demonstrates that readers of this site think that anybody gives a shit about what laser is in the laser-player-doohickey. Seriously, nobody gives a shit. Just give them the pixels. The digital crack. I guess I am still proud to be a reader, but to get consistently modded down by people who apparently live in la-la-land, well that stings. Fuck you guys.
This is kind of the reason I like computers for gaming. Whenever I get new hardware I know exactly what I got myself into.
This is pretty interesting, perhaps this shows how inefficient the "one console fits all"/"media center" ideology can be. Given that a lot of people either don't know about what else it can do, or don't care about what it can do (I know all of my friends are in that boat), it might show that Microsoft and the Sony have devoted too much time and money towards these than they should have.
I'd like to see a follow up to this analysing the consumers needs (present) vs. the companies expectations of those needs, and account for these additional expenses. It would be interesting to see how much more profitable these machines could have been, an how much easier it might have been for them to get to production, and how many they could have produced for their initial release (Especially since the PS3 was majorly set back by BlueRay).
This is my footer. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Well damn, you know everything
1. The whole world isn't as poor as you are.
2. My PS3 will last longer than your XBOX.
3. I like Blu-ray. They do too.
4. I have never owned a PS2, but I now go shopping for PS2 games occasionally, and on my 480i TV, they still all look pretty f'ing good.
5. I can play more games on my PS3 than you will ever be able to play on your 360. Eat it.
Huh. I tried to google for a story about this, but found none. I don't think it's true. Do you have any sources? And please, no third-party teardowns. They're always full of shit.
Are you sure about Profile 1.1 being a trivial update? I've never seen any indication from Sony that they're planning this.
Heck, their latest stand-alone Blu-ray player is still 1.0, and can't even read BD-R movie discs.
My video compression blog
I work for a company which has a 28 year history in post processing film and video for home consumer distrubtion. When the company moved to digital media (Digital Betacam, DVD, Digital-S) the company made their money authoring, reproducing and distributing DVDs. We have shipped hundreds of millions of discs since DVD became popular. I, as a developer have a special value to the company since I develop much of the technology we use in-house for producing streaming formats for broadcast networks, Video On Demand services in particular. We post process media from nearly every major studio every day since our solutions are unique, meaning unlike the alternatives, our solutions work and that's thanks to Open Source programs such as AVI Synth which are unmatched because of their shear programability through scripting.
:
So, now that I'm spewed out my resume, let me get to the point, HD. When the transition from VHS to DVD occurred, there was a clear and obvious advantage to the consumer that had already been proven by the years of consumers switching from cassette tapes to CD. The discs are easier to manage, their quality typically doesn't degrade except within extreme circumstances, and most importantly, the user didn't have to rewind and fast forward to find different scenes. There was such an incredible consumer advantage to DVD over VHS. Our market research as well as industry research actually proves that consumers for the most part don't actually care about the quality difference between VHS and DVD, at least not until the VHS tape degrades enough for it to be noticable.
We presented 100 random users (we typically tried for young adults, 50% where suits at lunch time and 50% in casual dress) with a VideoCD and a DVD with identical menus (simple ones of course). The VideoCD was mastered with a higher quality loss than the VHS tape we used for comparison. We asked the users to tell us if they would pay 50% more for the DVD than for the VideoCD. Over 70% responded that they didn't see the point in paying the extra money for the same film. We provided a list of possible answers such as "DVD is so much better than VideoCD, if I had to pay double, I wouldn't care". Clear majority, over 70% checked these two boxes
"If the movie sucks on VideoCD, then it sucks on DVD too. If it looks good on VideoCD, then why pay more for DVD"
and
"If I were to pay extra for the DVD, it would be purely for the audio quality".
We're planning on running a similar test in the near future for high defition formats. But, we do expect the results to be the same. Because of this, the uptake of HD-DVD and BluRay will be much much slower than on DVD since the HD formats don't actually improve usability. The number one sellers of DVD, being the rewinding and the eventual quality degradation already are present in DVD.
Oh, the most important thing we learned comparing DVD to VHS is that most users will only plug in the bundled RCA cables for composite video and audio that is shipped with the player, and if no cables are included. We also learned that in the general consumer electronics stores (circuit city, best buy, and especially walmart) unless the DVD player is being sold together with a TV set, the salespeople, in order to avoid the hassle, won't even offer to sell an S-Video cable since they assume if the customer doesn't know to ask for it, then there's a very good chance they wouldn't use it anyway.
So, this brings us to quality. Most Sony Playstations are in fact cabled to the TV using RCA cables, not even S-Video since it costs extra to purchase an HDMI cable and the current generation of TVs in peoples houses (meaning the ones sold for the past 5 years, not just the past year) are more likely to have DVI than HDMI. Since this adds yet another level of confusion to the issue, there is a REALLY high chance the person buying the console is in fact buying it doesn't know what HDMI is or have a TV which will support it.
Yeh, there's the other point which is that most
With the risk to be modded flamebait and/or troll I'd say that the survey was in USA only.
Mostly because here in Europe and especially here in Sweden they are really expensive.
With a price of $860 (cheapest price) they have to make the potential buyers aware of EVERY function... if not, I don't think people really would buy one.
That these people are allowed to vote - if they can't read the literature that comes with the console, how can they read candidate names? Fair enough the six year olds might not know about blu ray, but can we really believe that those very same six year olds went out and bought a ps3 with their hard earned? Ok, I'm probably exaggerating but somewhere someone isn't reading the information they've been given.
I also like the OP's anti-ps3 slant by clever editing of the quote from the article.
Sony have made one major mistake with the ps3, releasing little or no killer game for the console themselves soon after the console's launch, when they had the longest time with the dev kits out of all the developers to get used to making the most of the console's abilities. I was undecided about whether to get a 360 or ps3 up until a couple of weeks ago, so much so, that I rebought a psTWO (after a brief foray into Nintendo in the shape of a Gamecube, that I quickly offloaded) to play all the good games I missed out on the first time round. Once there's a few killer titles out and I can afford a really nice TV to run it through, I'll be jumping on the ps3 train.
"Feel the force, mother fucker." (Shaft Windu)
all suffer from profound mental retardation. Or they're 3 years old. Either way, they're still drooling on themselves and they should be slapped for buying a gaming system that expensive without knowing they were paying for something more than just a gaming platform.
I am not to suprised by this study. Most people are just dumb and are like "OOOO it looks like real life" Gaming is out to the masses it is no longer the hobby of us geeks T_T it is very sad.
I bought my kid a Wii...because he is EIGHT. The thing kinda sucks, actually, but I doubt that an EIGHT year old would appreciate the technical superiority of a PS3. I certainly don't want to spend $300 on an Xbox 360 with a 1-in-3 chance of it breaking either. Now I can play my PC games while my kids swing away at the TV screen for hours!
You're partially correct. A lot of us used to enjoy warcraft 3, counter strike, Odin sphere and GTA. Then we grew up and got careers, houses and families. Time is now a precious commodity. I'm guessing that a large portion of the Wii market falls has more in common with me than you.
They polled people ages 6 to 44... what a great and reliable survey. Why didn't you poll the 5 year olds?
But they can't be bothered with leaving their parents' basement to fetch any Blu-Ray discs.
Have gnu, will travel.
Scenario 1)
Average Joe:
I want to buy a video games console.
Clerk:
Please come to me to the gaming section.
There's the Wii, the PS3 and the 360. The Wii sells for less, the 360 is the middle price range, the PS3 is the highest costing one.
The Wii has this motion sensor you can try over there at the demo machine.
Average Joe:
Who, the Wii controller feels original and good.
Clerk:
The 360 and the PS3 support HD, see how much the image is clearer on the demo machine?
Average Joe:
I don't have an HDTV, so i'll take the Wii.
- OR -
I have an HDTV, so i'll take the 360, it's less expansive.
Scenario 2)
Average Joe:
I want a BluRay player,
Clerk:
Please come with me to the electronics department, right next to the DVD players are the BluRay players.
We have the model X and the model Y in store. One is made by A, the other is made by B. A is generally of higher quality than B, but it costs more.
Average Joe:
I'll take player A as i want a quality player
- OR -
I'll take player B as i want a cheaper one
Conclusion:
In scenario 2, the customer isn't even taken to the "gaming" department as he's not looking for games, but something else.
In scenario 1, the customer isn't even talked to about the "other" functionalities on the PS3 or the 360 (it would just take plain too long for the clerk)
Example that would take too much time to "inform" a customer about the 360:
- You can play 360 games
- You can play some original xbox games, but not all (now to explain why that is).
- You can view pictures, movies and listen to music from an iPod, a USB key.
- You can connect the console to a Windows based PC and watch content from your PC in your living room on your TV, by going through your 360 (now to explain the requirement of a "home network".
- You can play online, if you have a gold subscription.
- You can also access an online marketplace, with videos, movie rental system, television shows, games and games expansions.
- You have a unique profile created that you can use on ANY 360, even your friends.
- The 360 can also integrates into your Vista or XP media center edition PC and your Zune player seemlessly.
- It has 3 different bundles, the Core, the Premium and the Elite (now to explain the differences between them).
Explaining all this would take over an hour for the clerk. He doesn't have the time. So he explain only what the customer asks (or think to ask): how much does it cost? and what do i need to get it running?
Explaining all the features of the PS3 would be equally as long. Just think of telling Linux can be installed on it and explaining it can give a clerk a nightmare.
As for the Wii, well it simply put, PLAYS GAMES. Nothing really more and nothing really less. The customers can usually also experience most of what it offers by himself directly in the store. Unlike Linux, Vista connectivity or "marketplaces" and other whatnots...
I would wager that a majority of people that robbed/mugged/(insert other violent acts here) to obtain their ps3 had and have no idea what the capabilities of the system are. These probably aren't the type of people utilizing the core processor and participating in Folding@home either. ps3, the socially conscious uber nerd's soon to be all in 1 blu ray dvr gaming machine.
Here's a link to the press release from NPD Group. From the bottom of the press release:
Methodology
The report is based on online survey responses from 6,260 members of NPD's online consumer panel. These respondents, comprised of males and females ages 6 to 44, are qualified owners of at least one next generation system (PS3, PSP, Wii, NDS, Xbox 360). In addition, non-owners were captured in order to further probe on next generation system purchase intent and other areas. Fieldwork was conducted from April 4-10, 2007.
Begin to understand the problems? How many 6-year-olds use streaming media, and how many of the respondents have PS3s? Only a fraction of respondents so we have a limited sample size. And it was an ONLINE survey, everyone could easily have been lying. Read: They were too cheap for focus groups.