NPD survey says gamers unaware of their console's capabilities

by Ross Miller { Aug 10th 2007 at 3:30PM }

To most Joystiq readers, Blu-ray is synonymous with the PlayStation 3. According to a recent survey from the NPD Group (via ars technica), however, that connection isn't as widely known. In fact, the results show that just 40% of those who owned a PS3 knew it had a Blu-ray drive. Really?

Even more bizarre, the report states that just 50% of the gamers surveyed knew the PS3 had high definition graphics. That's, of course, a relative victory over Xbox 360, whose high definition prowess was only known by 30% of the survey takers. The survey was reportedly a culmination of 6,260 responses from console owners aged six to 44. Who are these people, though?

We're still confused by the PS3 / Blu-ray (dis)connection, given that the Blu-ray logo is placed prominently on the front of the box, in every commercial and advertisement, on the console itself. How did those other 60% miss that?

Curious about Nintendo's ability to inform the public, we conducted our survey today. It turns out only 35% of the Joystiq staff (and 70% of the NWF staff) knew the Wii had motion controls.

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

Tags: bluray, microsoft, npd, sony, survey, ydkj

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

J-Guy @ Aug 10th 2007 3:35PM

Weird.

leland @ Aug 10th 2007 3:35PM

TVersity. greatest program ever. and totally free.

mr nimblewick @ Aug 10th 2007 3:37PM

And thus people are still buying PS2's and, because they can wrap their heads around the difference, the Wii.

Anam @ Aug 10th 2007 3:37PM

When most consoles are bought by parents for children, this doesn't surprise me. Likewise, with about 4 different variations of both 360s and PS3s, it would be easy for people to get confused if they don't keep up with the industry.

However, not knowing about the Wii having motion controls is just laughable...

Fernando Rocker @ Aug 10th 2007 3:39PM

Its because we all are geeks here.

But in real life, its a different story. Just stay for 20 minutes in the videogame section on Walmart. The majority of teens and kids buying videogames just because the covers looks good. Or just because its another Madden. I feel sorry for a kid that was begging to his dad to buy Dangerous Hunt for the PS2.

They have no clue of the full capabilities of a console.

Anam @ Aug 10th 2007 3:47PM

Yep.

What I really hate is when people who know better do the same thing. I have a friend of mine (who I try to keep somewhat informed) that will buy any game on the shelf that has a superhero on it, and then complains about how the Xbox has no good games...

ymmv @ Aug 10th 2007 3:40PM

Maybe we have now found the reason why the Wii is successful? Because Nintendo is the only company who knew the way to success is underestimating the intelligence of your customers.

Word of the street. @ Aug 10th 2007 3:44PM

Nah, Sony did that first. Remember the PS3 ad with the bathtub guy saying that your life is meaningless without a 600$ box.

The success of Nintendo was copying Apple which strategy was to implement an artificial necessity into costumers for something you didn’t want or need to begin with.

Hirsbrunner @ Aug 11th 2007 2:48PM

"Because Nintendo is the only company who knew the way to success is underestimating the intelligence of your customers."

Awesome.

And true, too!

Word of the street. @ Aug 10th 2007 3:40PM

Well I was aware that the x360 and ps3 can do high definition and other crap.

But IMO what people dont know(Including myself) is the limit of what current gen consoles can do,I thought the best the x360 can do was Gears of war and then stuff like Call of Duty 4 pop up.

Steve @ Aug 10th 2007 3:48PM

This is something that is true for all consoles. Not even the developers know what a console can do until they've worked with it for a few years and only the most talented people will ever wring all of the power out of it.

Steve @ Aug 10th 2007 3:49PM

developers *don't* know, sorry :P

required @ Aug 10th 2007 3:42PM

survey says, "polls are for tools"

melloncollie @ Aug 10th 2007 4:23PM

You're a tool.

mr nimblewick @ Aug 10th 2007 3:42PM

So much also depends on how the questions were asked. For example, if you ask:

Can this system do high definition? A lot of people say yes.

If you ask, Can this system do 720p? Many will not know what you mean.

Or:

What kind of disk does this system play? "I don't know."

Vs.

Does this system play high definition media? "Yes."

Bluebrake @ Aug 10th 2007 5:42PM

This is just an excellent point. We always forget this, but we should never trust the results of a survey without reading the questions first.

Personally, I find these numbers awfully hard to believe. About 1/3 of American households now own an HDTV. Even if we supposed that the PS3 demographic exactly matches the overall demographic of the US, that means that 1/3 of PS3 owners own an HDTV, and only another ~17% even know it can do hi-def. The PS3 early adopters, the craziest of the hardcore gamers who are willing to spend $600 on a machine in the first year of its life? These guys don't know it can do HD? And in reality, the actual percentage of HDTVs among PS3 owners is without a doubt much higher than the percentage among the general population - at least 50%, maybe as high as 70%. So according to this study, a significant number of people who already -own- HDTVs don't know they can hook their PS3s up to them.

I'm having trouble buying it.

Slaziman @ Aug 10th 2007 7:47PM

You'd be surprised at the amount of people that buy an HDTV without even knowing it's HD. That coupled with the popularity of LCD's and the fact that a lot of LCD's are HD Ready, as well as the confusion that HD comes magically and you don't need a HD signal to go with it, that's enough shit to justify that 1/3 thing.

Anthony @ Aug 10th 2007 3:43PM

Maybe it's because Blu-ray and HD capabilities aren't why most people buy their systems.

I know I didn't know the Gamecube had s-video until I started reading Joystiq, yet I had owned one since launch. All I cared about were the games.

Justin B @ Aug 10th 2007 3:52PM

You can't "have" s-video. S-video is just another way of sending video instead of the yellow cable. Every video game system ever made "has" s-video capability.

"OMG I JUST FOUND OUT MY GAMECUBE HAS A POWER CORD LOL"

warioswoods @ Aug 10th 2007 4:20PM

Clearly he means that he didn't realize his console could use an S-Video connection instead of the yellow composite cable, which means that he was missing out on the noticeable increase in quality that comes from S-video when compared to composite. So, he didn't know about a capability of his console, which is very relevant to the topic here. That is nothing like not knowing about a power cord, your caps lock notwithstanding.

Justin B @ Aug 10th 2007 5:41PM

"Clearly he means that he didn't realize his console could use an S-Video connection instead of the yellow composite cable"

Uh, yes. That was the whole point. He didn't realize his console could use an S-Video connection. Which even if a device doesn't natively support it, which everything does, you can convert any composite signal into S-video. Did I really need to repeat myself?

Also S-video provides no noticeable difference, perhaps that is why no one uses it despite the fact that everything supports it. PS: I am going to assume you use it though and believe it is vastly superior in every imaginable way to composite.

warioswoods @ Aug 10th 2007 7:59PM

And I thought Wario was supposed to be the angry one.

Justin B @ Aug 10th 2007 10:23PM

Am I that out of line here?

What are the odds you're just a bastard with a bunch of proxies?

bean @ Aug 10th 2007 3:47PM

we forget that people who frequent this site are informed while the masses are retarded by comparison. We grow up thinking what we know is common sense but you'd be surprised how stupid the majority of people are...

Andrew @ Aug 10th 2007 4:03PM

Amen to that brother. I have to keep telling myself that everytime I hear or see somebody do something stupid. I never considered myself smart until I started looking around and taking note of other people. Either I really am smart, or they really are that stupid.

hvnlysoldr @ Aug 10th 2007 4:32PM

Common sense isn't common.

Evan @ Aug 10th 2007 7:29PM

Just because someone doesn't know something doesn't make them stupid. My Ex-girlfriend didn't know a thing about high definition video, but she certainly wasn't "stupid", she had a Ph.D. in chemistry! She just didn't care about high definition video.

Let me ask you a question: How much do you know about golf? Does not knowing about golf make you stupid? No, it just means that you don't care about golf! Some people care about golf, some people care about chemistry, and some people care about high definition.

beans @ Aug 10th 2007 8:11PM

I'm not saying people are stupid because they don't know something that we do, I'm saying people are stupid because they don't know something they should. Your stupid golf analogy doesn't work because it's not a matter of how much we know about golf, it's a matter of knowing why we are spending a shitload on clubs while not knowing the difference between a pitching wedge and 9 iron, or if you want to go to an extreme if we don't know the difference between a putter or a wood. Think before you open your trap.

Either way, the general public IS stupid, PhD or not