Half Of Next-Gen Console Owners Are Playing On Standard-Def TVs

It’s easy for those of us with HDTVs to forget that not everyone has them yet. And Epic’s Mark Rein’s stat that over half of Gears of War 2 players played it on an SDTV really brings that home.

If you’re wondering why Microsoft and Sony are going to drag this current generation of consoles out for as long as possible, look no further than this:

Over half the users who played Gears of War 2 so far do not have HDTVs…My point is, of the systems that are out there now, the majority of them aren’t plugged into HDTVs. So there’s no way we’re ready for the PlayStation 4 or the Xbox Whatever.

More than half. That’s a pretty wild statistic. And of course Microsoft and Sony won’t want to invest in a whole new console until everyone has an HDTV, because without that, there’s really not much more for them to upgrade. People need to upgrade themselves first.

That being said, I’m still annoyed that the Wii is only in standard def. Sony and Microsoft may be catering to less than half of their userbase with HD graphics, but at least they’re offering the best experience possible to their entire audience. [Eurogamer via Kotaku]