Console Wars VI

[Zero]

Actually, I just recently bought a used PS2. My last one died recently, and it sucks knowing if I had an older PS3 model I wouldn't have had to buy it... and 360 doesnt emulate old xbox fighting games well either. so u dont really have much choice.

I have the sticks and the games on the ps2 console.... (heck I use my ps2 stick on a ps3 with adapter still) so unless you're still playing fighters on DC (which some ppl still do.. I for one do not wanna resort to that... even though ps2 ports are usually far more inferior...), PS2 is worth owning.

[DrSpike]

SF2:ST & Third Strike work really well on the 360. MvC2 and CvSNK2 I've heard there are some issues, but not sure how severe they are. HF works fine but is pretty awful online.

Still, if you have the sticks and the games no harm in picking up a cheap PS2.

[Asher]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/04/nielson-report-ps2-is-trending-down-card-games-dominate-pc.ars

Nielsen: PS2 is trending down, card games dominate PC gaming

The newest Nielsen report about gaming habits shows that PC card games are huge time-sinks, and PS3 gamers aren't very interested in television. More trends, including the surprising PC game with most minutes played a week, are explored in our breakdown.



Nielsen has released its "The State of the Video Gamer" report for the fourth quarter of 2008, and the data inside contains a few things we knew, a few things we suspected, and a few surprises. It's not shocking that gaming has proven resilient against the economic downturn, but it is somewhat surprising to see how sharply PS2 usage is declining. The report paints an interesting picture of how gamers engage with their consoles. Let's take a look.

The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles have the most engaged gamers, the report states. "These two consoles have the highest active user percent measures of any other console Nielsen measures," the report says. "They also have the highest average usage days and daily average number of sessions."

The report also shows that the most watched television shows for console users were shown later in the evening or during weekday mornings; these players are not watching much prime time television. In fact, gamers with those two consoles don't watch a ton of TV, while Wii owners tend to watch more.

Looking at playing trends, both the Xbox 360 and Wii are trending up, but the PS2 is declining rapidly. "The PlayStation 2, while still leading all other consoles in total minutes of usage, continues to have the highest downward trending rate of usage," the report states. "Trending data suggests by the end of 2009, the PlayStation 2 will no longer be the most-used console in the United States."
nielson.png

The PlayStation 3 is an odd beast in this report. "PlayStation 3 console users clearly use their consoles as a group more than any other console type we track," the report states, but that's only good news if you take the group as a whole. When you look at overall usage percentage, the PS3 comes in dead last against every other console. So the PlayStation 3 has proven itself to be a wonderfully sticky system, but with much lower usage than the competition.

The stats for PC gaming can be slightly depressing for the hardcore gamer. What are people playing? Overwhelmingly, they're playing the free card games that ship with Windows. After Solitaire, Freecell, Great Escapes Solitaire, Hearts, Minesweeper, and Pinball, you get... World of WarCraft. When you look at the games with the most minutes played, we see an old friend come back. "The PC title IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 had the highest average minutes per week for a given player, but only had 6,978 unique players," the report shows. "World of Warcraft comes in at a close second with 744 minutes of average play per week per player and a staggering 1,201,848 male players in the U.S."

The report paints an interesting picture of the current state of gaming, although it would have been fascinating to look at PC Gaming with the ultra-casual card games removed; the data about people playing Hearts at work may have skewed those results... or maybe we're just being elitist about our PC gaming.

The full report (PDF) is a good read if you'd like to dig deeper.

[El_Cid]

wow - at last i can get to poly to post this

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=23143

it appears the nielsen report had some errors in it that are addressed in the article.

[DrSpike]

What a delicious boomerang.

[El_Cid]

Well the Nielsen report is given more credit than it probably really deserves as it's sample pool is quite small(can't remember the numbers, but it surprised me). But they did atleast admitted to a mistake and fixed it.

Not that it really matters - PS2 gaming is still the bigger share and quite a longtime after this current, comparitively expensive, generation hit stores.

In console gaming it is only about the games(ask PS3!) - if you don't have enough good titles you just can't make it in the long run. AAA's don't do enough 'good' games on the current gen - it's moslty gloss and fluff! pfffff lots of us have better games to play.

That's my biased opinion of course, backed up by figures from these kind of reports for the last few years

Yes i know PS2 is declining - consoles are closed systems, if less games get made on a platform(say becasue that platform wants you to buy the newest console) it will die. How long did the xbox hang around? PS2 has some kick in her and rightly so - the games library is one of the best in consoles.

but dont let my milking it ruin your boomerang momment

[DrSpike]

You have ruined it now because in the upcoming fracas I'm going to have to side with Asher, since you are trotting out your standard "next gen AAAs are all gloss and fluff" nonsense.

[El_Cid]

You have ruined it now because in the upcoming fracas I'm going to have to side with Asher, since you are trotting out your standard "next gen AAAs are all gloss and fluff" nonsense.

Most, i always say most as i'm addicted to telling the truth

[lord of the mark]

So the bottom line is, the Wii's are not collecting dust.

[Asher]

They certainly are. There's much more Wii units than 360, but they get played less.

Do you need more handholding in interpreting results here? If so, PM DrSpike -- he has a patience with those slower people that I lack.

[DrSpike]

I'm not sure it's so clear. For your 'gathering dust' theory you need to show that lots of Wii units are not being played at all. The data (at least the data here) is also consistent with lots of units being played regularly, just for less time than more hardcore consoles like the 360, given the nature of the console, the playerbase, and the games.

[Asher]

I'm not sure it's so clear. For your 'gathering dust' theory you need to show that lots of Wii units are not being played at all.

No, I don't.

And they are anyway. Virtually everyone I know with a Wii has them in full-on dust collection mode.

Meanwhile you and LOTM don't even own Wiis (and this is clear in the double-entendre kind of way also), so I'm curious what your basis is for asserting that Wiis are not regularly collecting dust.

[Asher]

http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/140828/wii-collecting-dust-says-japanese-publisher/

Wii collecting dust says Japanese publisher

Influential Japanese video game publisher says the Nintendo Wii is being tossed aside by owners due to a lack of compelling games.

Hirokazu Hamamura, president of the venerable Enterbrain, said in a recent report that less than a third of Japanese Wii owners are playing the system regularly, according to his findings. Hamamura blames the lack of a second big hit a la Wii Sports for the repercussion.

The president added, however, that Wii Fit is drawing attention in addition to new exclusives such as the recently announced Monster Hunter 3 by Capcom.

The Wii, which has dominated console sales over the last year, has oft been criticized by the gaming press and long-time gamers for what they believe to be a lack of original games and/or for Nintendo's failure to deliver on its motion-sensing promise to revolutionize gaming.

[Asher]

Figuring out how to use google (I strongly recommend this, LOTM & DrSpike) also demonstrate there's a ton of hits on discussion on people lamenting the Wii becoming a dust collector.

The fact that people play it far less on average per unit compared to the 360 indicates this as well.

[DrSpike]

And they are anyway. Virtually everyone I know with a Wii has them in full-on dust collection mode.

Meanwhile you and LOTM don't even own Wiis (and this is clear in the double-entendre kind of way also), so I'm curious what your basis is for asserting that Wiis are not regularly collecting dust.

I'm not asserting anything here - I'm just saying that (in isolation) the data above isn't enough to support your gathering dust theory. That's not to say the theory is incorrect - just that the data originally posted above was not sufficient to demonstrate it. I see you've posted more now.