Next-Gen Console Owners Unaware of Next-Gen Features

[Junaid Alam]

Next-Gen Console Owners Unaware of Next-Gen Features

A recent NPD Group report shows that many owners of the latest generation of consoles are blissfully unaware of their highly touted features.

Some highlights from the findings:

Only 40 percent of PS3 owners knew about its Blu-ray player.
Half of those who were aware of Blu-ray did not use it.
About half of those polled knew the Xbox 360 plays DVDs.
30 percent of 360 owners knew the console was HD capable.
50 percent of PS3 owners knew the console was HD capable.

6,260 people were polled and owned at least one next-gen console.

Source: 1UP.com [http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3161833]

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[Arbre]

NPD Methodology
The report is based on online survey responses from 6,260 members of NPD's online consumer panel. These respondents, compromised 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.

Seems reliable at first glance.
It also seems that marketing a console on its next-genness is not necessarily the best thing to do.
In that case, it would be particularily problematic for Sony.
Well, the obvious otehr solution is to advertise through the game catalog. That one works most of the times.

 

[Andy Chalk]

It's not like you can expect the average console owner to be particularly bright.

 

[Geoffrey42]

Out of curiosity, I wonder what a "qualified" owner is defined as by the NPD. When I was growing up, was my mother a "qualified" owner of an NES, a Sega Genesis, or a Nintendo 64? Would she have been aware that the NES supported multiplayer? That the Sega was way better than the SNES? Or that the 64 had an analog stick, and that she was indeed the proud owner of the RAM expansion pack so that she could play certain games?

I doubt it.