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PS3 Owners Have More Money to Rock HD Systems, Surround Sound Than Any Other Console
Posted by Matt Buchanan at 8:00 AM on December 22, 2007
Nielsen's survey of the state of console gamer HD setups reveals nothing too shocking, though I suspect the numbers are slightly inflated since participants were from the top 20 U.S. markets, over 18 and played at least one hour a week, skewing it toward more affluent, older and less casual gamers. The quick conclusions though, followed by a longer breakdown w/ fun charts below: A huge proportion of gamers have gone HD, with PS3 owners leading in higher setups—71 per cent gaze at some sort of HDTV, and 54 per cent are enveloped by surround sound, with the 360, and surprisingly, the Wii not too far behind.
That the 360 barely trails PS3 HD rates with 66 per cent isn't mind-blowing—it and the PS3 are geared toward HD and higher end gamers, and have bigger pricetags to match (so if you can afford 'em it's more likely you can afford HD). Plus, both support an HD disc format, so it's no wonder they blow the Wii out of the water in movie watching (which managed 14 percent despite not officially supporting DVD playback). But a certifiably surprising 65 per cent of Wii owners in this survey have HD setups, just 1 per cent fewer than the 360.
You see the same thing with surround sound—48 percent of 360 owners have surround, and 43 per cent of Wii owners. There is a bit more of a stratification, since the PS3 leads hard in 7.1 adoption, with the Wii trailing most visibly here and shooting way ahead in stock TV speaker usage.
One big blind spot in the study is that (or at least in this report of it) is console cross-ownership. My feeling is that owners of multiple consoles are much more likely to have HD setups w/ surround sound since they've likely got more coin and are more serious about their home theater setup, as well as consumer electronics generally. Like, I would bet that a big chunk of the Wii HD adopters also own a 360 or PS3, though it's clear gamers all around want to see prettier pictures and hear bigger booms. [CEPro via Max Console via Kotaku]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
aaj111
Posted 4:46 PM 21/12/07
Too bad the PS3 only supports gamers with 3 good games and a Blu-Ray player.
aaj111
LoganSix
Posted 4:43 PM 21/12/07
14% for Wii owners watching movies on their consoles? How?
Since I can't play movies on the Wii, why would I download them to watch them on the Wii? That should be 0%. Unless people are going to YouTube and watching the movies there. And listening to music? Why? That's what the radio or an MP3 player is for.
LoganSix
demonwolf
Posted 4:24 PM 21/12/07
im part of the ps3/61"dlp/5.1 surround group
demonwolf
steelwurm
Posted 4:19 PM 21/12/07
So Nielsen is telling us that people who have more money to spend on expensive consoles have more money to spend on other things too? At least the bar graphs are colorful...
steelwurm
Seiven
Posted 4:19 PM 21/12/07
yep I own 2 of them, where do I fit in? 5.1 and 50" DLP
Seiven
evilsnowman
Posted 5:56 PM 21/12/07
I don't see a display chart for the other systems... SO that means fail to me... How are we suppose to judge when only seeing 1/3 the display information...
evilsnowman
Huginn
Posted 5:25 PM 21/12/07
I wonder how many torrent hounds got confused in the 'downloading games' question.
Huginn
babj615
Posted 5:22 PM 21/12/07
@zenpoet: Nice!!!
:-) :-) :-)
babj615
zenpoet
Posted 5:08 PM 21/12/07
I rock the ps3 on a 13" B&W zenith, with a mono speaker hung together with alligator clips.
Suck it Nielson.
zenpoet
babj615
Posted 5:02 PM 21/12/07
..My PS3 pumps 7.1 surround audio through a 1200 WATT Harman Kardon Reciever and video projected across the room +- 86" screen.....
..TWO sets of racing wheels/pedals/shifters with REAL racing seats... DiRT is soooooo much fun!!!!
babj615
Lizard_King
Posted 4:50 PM 21/12/07
Well duh... shocker - the most expensive unit is bought by people with more disposable income.
Can we see a study about what kind of people are buying the used last generation consoles at Gamestop? I'd like to see what they are using.
Lizard_King
BostonPimpDaddy
Posted 6:54 PM 21/12/07
They have more money because they have no games to buy LOL
BostonPimpDaddy
prodigal_son
Posted 7:20 PM 21/12/07
There is a news story here, and i have to say it has been missed.. Tut tut.. shame on you gizmodo.
The real juice in this story is that... 38% of ps3 users, the exact same amount as the 360 use the ps3 for "download games"
I refuse to believe that so many ps3 people actually use the console for anything game related, making this either a farce, or the most spectacular news ever...
prodigal_son
Lizard_King
Posted 7:37 PM 21/12/07
@masteryong: I chose not to have kids - their allowance buys my toys
Lizard_King
masteryong
Posted 7:23 PM 21/12/07
That makes sense. If you can afford a PS3- you're obviously filthy rich!
masteryong
benitocarmona
Posted 4:16 PM 21/12/07
I wonder why only 2% of ps3 gamers have DLP rear projector tv's I just bought one and for the price under $1000 i love it. 46" Samsung DLP 720P HDMI connector.
benitocarmona
VishusBurn
Posted 9:47 PM 21/12/07
@aaj111: @BostonPimpDaddy: @prodigal_son:
I currently have COD4, Unreal 3, GH3, Resistance, Warhawk, Oblivion, Skate, Assassins creed, Ninja Gaiden sigma, The Orange Box , NFS ProStreet, and Uncharted sitting on my desk next to my PS3. There are also lots of downloadable games on PSN.
I have plenty of games to play in addition to all the other great things it does.
@masteryong:
I don't think paying $500 for a console instead of $400 for cheaper console that is most likely to break atomically qualifies you as "filthy rich".
VishusBurn
BostonPimpDaddy
Posted 10:52 PM 21/12/07
@VishusBurn: The vast majority, if not all the games you list came out like what, in the last 6 months????
BostonPimpDaddy
adamdouglasking
Posted 12:01 AM 22/12/07
@LoganSix: Yeah, I agree. tfw? Since when does youtube qualify as "movies"? I want to know how to get better-than-320x240 video out of my wii. Glorious 14%, share the knowledge!
adamdouglasking
VishusBurn
Posted 1:46 AM 22/12/07
@BostonPimpDaddy:
Certainly not all of them since resistance was a launch title, but yes most of those games did come out while the PS3 was in the second half of its first year.
Whats your point? You said there were no games now, not 6 months ago.
VishusBurn
skulldriveshaft
Posted 3:20 AM 22/12/07
and the point of this was?
how many people did they use to get the numbers?
skulldriveshaft
bigslide
Posted 2:41 PM 22/12/07
"less casual gamers"? I don't know what that means.
bigslide
VishusBurn
Posted 8:50 PM 22/12/07
@skulldriveshaft:
The number of people polled is not as important how they selected their participants.
I totally have to question the validity of their numbers when they claim that 14% of Wii owners use it to watch movies. Go figure???
VishusBurn
akmed
Posted 11:56 AM 23/12/07
but Wii can't do 5.1+ surround though :/
akmed
snakemanuver
Posted 11:33 PM 21/12/07
all the games that i would play on a 360 are games that have come out on ps3.
I also like playing my COD4 online without getting screamed at by a 12 year old and its nice not paying every month either.
Also nice to know that everyone i know with a 360 has had it replaced atleast once while im still rocking my original 60 GB
snakemanuver