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."

What?

[lattyware (934246)]

They bought a PS3 without realizing it had blu-ray?

Dear god... They must be mad.

Re:What?

[evil agent (918566)]

Yeah, wtf? It's almost as if they bought it to just play video games...

Re:What?

[lattyware (934246)]

Yeah, Crazy, a PS3 for video games, everyone knows it can't do that well!

Re:What?

[ArmitageX (730054)]

No, not really. You can be stupid and still own a console- just ask most of the Halo and Halo 2 playerbase...

Re:What?

[FauxPasIII (75900)]

> Yeah, wtf? It's almost as if they bought it to just play video games...

If they bought a PS3 planning to use it to play video games, they're really going to be mad.

Re:What?

[IDontAgreeWithYou (829067)]

I call shenanigans!!! You really expect us to believe that A)You have a wife and B)SHE is bugging YOU to get another game console. Sorry, that is just too much.

Re:What?

[Rod Beauvex (832040)]

Um, that's a retractable cupholder. Duh.

Re:

[cinderblock (1102693)]

It's like not knowing that your computer can play CD's.

WHAT? It can!?

Re:

[Lemmy Caution (8378)]

Well, one difference is that most of us have dozens of CDs, and not one Blue-Ray disk.

I know someone...

[SanityInAnarchy (655584)]

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

Re:I know someone...

[LKM (227954)]

I bought mine because it looks kinda like the monolith from 2001. Same size, too. It's a real conversation starter. True story.

Of course not

[GeckoX (259575)]

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.

Re:Of course not

[yaphadam097 (670358)]

My local Fry's had a gigantic sign over the blu-ray section the other day that said, "Blu-Ray discs require a Blu-Ray player." If there is enough confusion to justify that sign (Which just appeared there despite the fact that the Blu-Ray section has been there since late last year) then it is not surprising that many PS3 owners might be confused as well.

Re:

[MikeBabcock (65886)]

When I go to Blockbuster and rent Blu-Ray movies they stop me at the desk and confirm that I have a Blu-Ray disc player every time (please add it to my customer profile). The one person I told I had a PS3 then replied "but you need a Blu-Ray disc player" which precipitated my explaining that the PS3 in fact included one.

I'm not surprised by the findings at all from my experience. Sony needs a better marketing campaign, not a new price tag (although I'm all for cheaper).

Re:

[cicatrix1 (123440)]

Bullshit. I know a ton of people (including myself) who didn't buy a stand-alone DVD player because the PS2 would have one. I'm *SURE* it's responsible for a growth of DVD sales. Your observation about DVD player sales hurting is probably spot on, however, even if you were comparing apples to oranges as the GP never mentioned players but was talking about actual DVDs.

Re:Of course not

[chromatic (9471)]

I know a ton of people (including myself) who didn't buy a stand-alone DVD player because the PS2 would have one. I'm *SURE* it's responsible for a growth of DVD sales.

I'm not certain that being *SURE* is a good substitute for actual statistics.

Re:Of course not

[heinousjay (683506)]

This is the games section. Every assertion is backed with a personal guarantee, which is backed with all manner of anecdotes. If you want fancy numbers that hold up to scrutiny, get yourself over to the science section.

Re:Well Gosh Darn It All...

[mr_mischief (456295)]

A handful of early adopters is not a sizable market. You're just subsidizing manufacturing line refreshes and ramp-up that will give the rest of us the same stuff for half as much in two years or so. Thanks for that, BTW.

Don't know, or don't care?

[AKAImBatman (238306)]

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.

Re:

[Just Some Guy (3352)]

Don't care. I bought a Wii so that my wife and I could have a fun console that we could both enjoy. It's on the el-cheapo 19" TV in our bedroom, so HD is completely useless to me. We already have a DVD player. I specifically do not want BluRay. Nintendo's concentrating on quick, fun games instead of hard-core appeal (although Resident Evil 4 is incredibly great).

Despite all those reasons, Ars must be right: we bought a Wii because we just didn't know what the 360 or PS3 could do. Yeah, that's it.

Re:Don't know, or don't care?

[*weasel (174362)]

It's too bad that Sony didn't do this. They might have had a better response if they had.

I don't know how much more they could've said it. Every time their PR people open their mouths it's "Blu-ray" this and "computer in your living room" that.

Trick is, it's a Playstation. Playstation is now synonymous with 'games' they way Nintendo is. You could print in big block letters "THIS THING DOES NOT PLAY GAMES" and people would still buy the PS3 to play games and nothing more.

It goes back to the 'don't care' portion of your rhetorical. They simply don't care. Regardless of how you position these boxes, gamers just want to play games.

Similarly: Nintendo isn't winning because they stayed away from HD and next-gen disc formats. They stayed away last-gen and that didn't help them any. The Wii is selling like gangbusters because it provides a social game experience that's unmatched anywhere else. Nintendo focused on what gamers were focused on: the fun. If the Wii did HD video it'd still be selling like gangbusters: and their HD cables would be just as under-utilized as those of the 360 and PS3.

Re:

[cowscows (103644)]

I don't know. If they had called this thing something else, would more people really have bought it for bluray? Anyone who's interested in Bluray can easily do a minimal amount of research and discover that the PS3 plays them, and is one of the cheapest players out there. And in addition to a bluray player, you get this game console that does a bunch of other stuff. If I was in the market for a Bluray player, I'd have probably purchased a PS3 already. People aren't getting scared away from this bluray playe

Too much.

[Pojut (1027544)]

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.

HD Capability

[lonechicken (1046406)]

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.

Honestly...

[Cyno01 (573917)]

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, expe

Justification of the expense

[another_fanboy (987962)]

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?

Way to cherry pick quotes...

[the_skywise (189793)]

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?

I know that the ps3 plays blue-ray...

[MarcoAtWork (28889)]

...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.

Re:I know that the ps3 plays blue-ray...

[benzapp (464105)]

- can the controller be used wirelessly to control the playing?

Yes

- does the ps3 have an IR receiver so I can program my existing remote to control it like a stand-alone blue-ray player?

No

- does the ps3 support blue-ray profile 1.1 (with dual decoding)?

This standard isn't required for months. It's trivial to include support in a future firmware release.

- how is the quality compared to a stand-alone player?

You know about a future standard but haven't read any reviews of the PS3, the most popular bluray player? The quality is superb, and is considered to have better quality than many standalone players.

- does the ps3 have a digital out to feed to my receiver? (coax? optical?)

Sheesh, reading the box would answer this question. Of course it has optical output. That is the only way to receive surround sound with a bluray player.

- the ps3 does NOT upscale dvd movies to 1080i/p

This is false. Support for upscaling DVDs, PS1 and PS2 games was added in the 1.8 system software release in May. The quality of the upscaling is superior to my Yamaha DVD player that came with my 5.1 setup.

- the ps3 supports 1080p/24 starting from firmware 1.9

The ps3 has always supported 1080p output. The 1.9 release was relatively minor, with the only major component being support for Chinese text.

Re:

[by Anonymous Coward]

Oh, that shit key. Always eluding people.

Still think price dominates the explanation

[Chris Burke (6130)]

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.

See?

[MBCook (132727)]

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.

How about this instead?

[RichPowers (998637)]

Microsoft and Sony don't know their customers.

Nintendo Wins for Another Reason

[MolarMass (808031)]

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.

Re:

[Sylver Dragon (445237)]

Pretty much the exact same reason my parents bought one.
My parents are not gamers. The last console they bought was an NES for my brother's birthday one year. The last system that one of them actually picked up a controller for was the Atari 2600 (not counting the hours my father spent with me playing PC flight sims). My brother brought over his Wii during Christmas and we all proceeded to play Wii golf until the wee hours of the morning, several days in a row. After that, my parents ended up buying a

Big news flash.

[LWATCDR (28044)]

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.

Re:

[Kenshin (43036)]

Most iPod owners don't know that you can load Linux on their iPod.

Honestly, most PC owners don't know you can load Linux on their PC.

What do you mean apparent?

[oddman (204968)]

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.

The PS3 plays games?!?

[ibullard (312377)]

I didn't know my Blue-ray player was also a game machine!!!

Well, duh!

[seebs (15766)]

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.

Re:Wii-tards

[BarneyL (578636)]

Correction: Most people who buy a Wii don't care what the differences in the hardware specs are between the systems. They only look at the gameplay.

Re:

[RamblinLonghorn (1074873)]

Correction: Most people who buy a Wii are seeing overwhelming positive press coupled with an effective advertising campaign. Adding to this is the fact the Wii has proven most successful at engaging people in local multiplayer gaming, which improves word of mouth advertising.

Re:Wii-tards

[anotherone (132088)]

Correction: people buy the Wii because it's fun, pure and simple.

Re:Wii-tards

[LiquidCoooled (634315)]

Correction: people buy the Wii because its peppy [glumbert.com]!

Re:Wii-tards

[7Prime (871679)]

Because the N64 was a big letdown, and people didn't want to be burned again.

Seriously, a large part of a console's success is owed to how well the previous generation was recieved. In actuality, the GameCube was recieved VERY WELL, even if it didn't sell very well. It cleared up about 90% of the mistakes that Nintendo had made with the N64 (which lost them control), but it was going to take another generation for sales to really reflect that. Hence the popularity of the Wii.

Re:

[LKM (227954)]

What? People buy Wiis because it reminds them of the Arcades? That's the most absurd theory I've ever heard.

And Excite Truck was a good game. Owning both the Wii and the PS3, I put about three times as much time into Excite Truck than Motorstorm.

Re:

[7Prime (871679)]

Hows this: "I'd rather play this game than Motorstorm, Need For Speed Carbon, GranTourismo, or any other racing game that the PS3 has to offer." Now, granted, I'm not a fan of racing games, and that's sort of the point, Excite Truck *IS* more of an arcade game. Is it the kind of game I'd buy a $600 console for? Absolutely not. But neither is Motorstorm. At least Excite Truck has the Wiimote control scheme (which is REALLY FUN, I might add).

Re:

[LKM (227954)]

1. Ironically, the Wii Sports game have more depth than most other sports games I've ever played. What other boxing game has such precise controls and so many different moves? What other Tennis game lets you slice the ball so precisely?
2. The Wii has more First Person Shooters than Minigames compilations.
3. Dude, if you consider yourself a hardcore gamer, but think that Warioware has "poor gameplay" (with gameplay in quotes, I might add), you're unfortunately a sad little fanboy.

Re:

[Zantetsuken (935350)]

Not necessarily - people will be sold on "Super Crazy Ninja Vista Ultimate Media Center Laptop" sales at Best Buy due to the "uber-enhanced media capabilities", and then when they go on a long flight and want to watch movies, how many of these people do you think will take the laptop but forget they can play movies on it and go spend an extra $300 to 400 USD on a standalone portable DVD-player device?

It's not just a case of pot-head room-mates, less technically apt-people seem to associate certain functi

Re:The Wii's success is due to price. Period.

[grumbel (592662)]

I think the main point of the Wii is neither price nor the control scheme alone, but simply its simplicity. In 30sec a consumer can understand what the Wii will do for him and how it will be fun, both of these are very successfully told trough advertisement, word of mouth and Wii Sports as the perfect demo game. With PS3 and XBox360 you really can't make a normal person understand so easily what is good about them, especially not in 30sec.