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Radioactive IT Game console buyers have no idea what they have bought
Radioactive IT Game console buyers have no idea what they have bought | Game console buyers have no idea what they have bought |
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| by Mike Bantick | |
| Thursday, 09 August 2007 | |
      
The NPD Group have released results from their "Next Gen Functionality & Usage" report and some of the results must be awfully disappointing to the marketing departments of the big electronic companies. Turns out that a large portion of next-gen game console owners are unaware of some of the major ‘selling points’ touted by the manufactures. For example, only 40 percent of new PS3 owners knew that they had a Blu-ray drive in their machine, and only 50 percent of those that did, had dropped a high-def movie into the drive recently. While we are on PS3 owners, only around a third realised that the PS3 had backwards compatibility (Be it hardware via the Emotion engine or via software) with PS2 and PSOne titles. Not a big deal, but given that more than two thirds of potential purchasers list backwards compatibility as an important feature of their new toy. Xbox 360 owners don’t escape the ignorance (or perhaps it is the ‘who cares?’) test. Though they are living in a next-gen household, only around 30 percent are aware that their games machine can pump out High Definition graphics. "The industry is still in its infancy with regard to this "next-gen" and all the expanded capabilities of the systems," said NPD analyst Anita Frazier "Gameplay is still king, and it may take awhile for the awareness and usage of the additional features to really take hold with consumers." Is it a case of more money than sense purchasing, bad marketing or simply unwanted features installed on next-gen gaming consoles? The answer is probably a combination of a lot of these factors, plus the fact we are still early in the next-gen console age. To get the most from one of these new electronic marvels takes more than simply rocking into the local electronics store and lugging home the game console box. You will also need a HD screen, cabling to get the initial intended experience, add to this a superior surround sound set-up and Broadband internet connection and you are almost there. Well you are there actually, if you also manage to find time to explore the features on offer. The problem it seems is that most game consoles are simply bought to play games on. What a waste!
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