finbogg

Just to stir the pot up and ignite a hailstorm of controversy, this news was released recently:

Microsoft Xbox to be big winner this holiday season reveals year's largest survey of gamers

"The results of the largest survey of gamers this year revealed that Microsoft's Xbox would be the game console of choice this holiday season. Over 12,000 gamers were queried, "What console gaming system do you plan to buy in the coming year?" and 39% answered they plan to buy a Microsoft Xbox, 27% will buy a SONY Playstation 2, and 17% plan to purchase Nintendo's GameCube.
The study also showed that game demos have the most influence over game purchase decisions. When asked "Which of these items highly influence your game purchase decisions?" nearly 8 out of 10 respondents (78%) ranked game demos the number 1 factor, far ahead of the number 2 response: game reviews (47%). Both television commercials (35%) and magazine ads (31%) trailed furthest behind as drivers of retail purchase behavior.

The survey was commissioned by Gigex, Inc., the leading online distributor of video game trailers and demos, was conducted online between July 15th and August 15th, 2002 and is the result of 12,288 responses.

The study also revealed that the majority of Gigex visitors are avid gamers who have been playing video games for 6 years or more (73%), play 20 hours or more a week (24%), and consider themselves to be advanced (44%) gamers."


Make of it what you will.

Groucho

Let's hope somebody at Nintendo sees this and they start distributing their demo discs to the players and not just to the stores.

s}{ammer

Interesting, I wish they had asked which game systems these folks already have.

Adam Tyner

How do you know they didn't ask that, s}{ammer?

s}{ammer

It says that the majority are avid gamers and that demos are what sells them games the most. It doesn't however mention what systems they currently own.

belboz

In general, online polls and surveys are worthless. They're good for PR and maybe generating a little bit of discussion, but as meaningful market research, they're useless.

darkside

PS2 will outsell the competition again this holiday season. That poll is worthless.

People who don't already have a PS2 will be drawn in by all the $19.99 Greatest Hits titles available and of course Vice City will probably help.

Sounds like that poll was conducted among Microsoft employees.

The Xbox might beat the Game Cube, but not the PS2.

Kellehair

What BS. I don't think people who visit Gigex accurately represent mainstream consumers.

zig

Nintendo needs to fix their image. Maybe they should change their name to N0³ and start making games that feature environments and characters similar to those in 95% of ps2 games.

Gallant Pig

Don't you guys think the market for PS2 is becoming saturated? That is to say, most people who want to own a PS2 will already own one, at least until the next price drop?

Kellehair

GP: This is the first Christmas since the PS2 price drop. It's also the first Christmas that Greatest Hits titles have been available.

Adam Tyner

It's also a press release, not the full results of the poll, as is stated in no uncertain terms at the bottom of the release. "Complete results of this research are available by contacting Gigex, Inc at [email protected] " The sort of detailed analysis you want is beyond the scope of your usual press release, s}{ammer.

finbogg

I love it, just the reaction I counted on. It didn't take long for people to come out and bash the survey, its results, the surveyors, the surveyees.

Why is there an automatic assumption that anything that paints MS in a postive light was done by MS employees or apologists? Would the reaction be the same if Nintendo or PS2 was predicted in the lead? I wonder....

Feneant

It seems like every time there is a survey that doesn't put Sony on top, people complain. The best part is if you ask people for a reason why they don't like the Xbox, they say 'Its Microsoft' (so??) or 'It sucks, period.' (and??).

If the Live gaming thing is out for Xmas, any idiot can see that the Xbox will be getting a big boost with the gamers since it is so much more user friendly and will work better since it's broadband only with the speech capabilities.

There is no doubt that the cube will be (distant?) third in sales, it will be close between the other 2 consoles but there is still nothing at this point to say who will come out on top with or without a survey.

Notice also that Finbogg did not in his post give an opinion, for all you know, he might hate the Xbox yet people assume and start going on the defensive while not one Xbox fan has come in here to defend the Xbox.

[sarcasm]Would this also imply that everyone who is against the Xbox use Linux, MaOS or Unix, perish the thought that they could be using a Microsoft product, I mean... it would surely shoot some rays that would wreck their Ps2's.[/sarcasm]

belboz

I have no problem with the results of this survey. My concerns are about how it was conducted. If the results were that Sony or Nintendo was going to sell the most this Xmas, I would have exactly the same issues with it as I expressed in my first post.

Kellehair

finbogg and Feneant: Why do you 2 have your panties in a bunch? No one said anything anti-Xbox or anti-Microsoft.

This board needs a raised eyebrow smile-face thing. For now i'll just put this...

zig

Heh. Yeah.. we would get the same replies no matter what the results of this survey were. Just with some names switched around. Face it, surveys, especially poorly conducted ones like this, are worthless. You're only kidding yourself if you use this information to predict something.

Josh H

PS2 will win the holiday, no contest. GTA Vice City is enough to ensure that.

It will be a tight race between Nintendo and MS for number 2 though.

The $189 Gamecube bundle (controller, mem card, mario sunshine) that goes on sell in oct., along with Star Fox, Resident Evil O, Mario Party 4, Metroid Prime, Wario World etc. ought to sell a good bit of gamecubes.

X-box live could be a big selling point, though personally I think online gaming is only a selling point for hardcore gamers, most of which already own all the systems they want.

There are definitely some cool X-box games coming out, Panzer Dragoon Orta among.

It just seems that none of them have the "star power" to sell consoles to kids and casual gamers over the holidays, and as stated above, most hardcore gamers have made there decisions.

So I'm prediction Sony will win, followed by Nintendo in a distant second, with MS lagging a little behind.

ChrisKnudsen

Nintendo has a lot of AAA titles coming out, I wouldn't be surprised if they pull up at top this holiday season. But the Playstation2 has a lot of AAA titles already out and some them for only $20 so I think the Ps2 will actually be on top. I really don't see much in the XBOX's library that really is AAA but then again, I can expect the Halo comment to enter down below.

mr.snowmizer

Seems obvious to me the order will be PS2, Xbox, then Gamecube. There's no chance of that changing until the 2003 holiday season.

Get Me Coffee

Nintendo targets a particular market (young children) and I bet they are dominating that market. Whether Nintendo wants the other market is clear...NO they don't give a damn. Colorful, cartoon environments are their things. The young children audience is small compared to the Teen + group. I'm starting to think of Nintendo as becoming the "apple" in computers. People who buy Nintendo are loyal to them because it was their first system and their are loyal to the company. Nintendo has a small focus group that they market too.

Kellehair

What about Eternal Darkness? Why did they sign the RE series to an exclusive deal? Why isn't Metroid Prime a cute platformer? Nintendo has games for everyone. They definitely make some cute games but those games can be enjoyed by everyone. Just look at Mario Sunhsine. Sure, it's colorful, but it's also very challenging. I've been playing video games for over 15 years and I semi-doubt I'll be able to get all 120 shines.

s}{ammer

I don't agree with that. I have often thought of getting a cube but something mroe important than having 2 systems usually changes my mind. I do see a bunch of good games for Nintendo and a few for PS2 and xbox. I say Nintendo could pull ahead with the right marketing this holiday season but if not then Sony pulls something out of the hat to be #1 again. I think it all does come down to who markets correctly.

darkside

I'm not bashing Microsoft or the Xbox. I'm using common sense. I'm not even the biggest PS2 fan in the world. Other than Vice City and Kingdom Hearts all my game buying is going towards the Game Cube.

There is just no way anyone is going to slow down the PS2. I go to game stores and talk to different people about games frequently and the thing most people talk about is the PS2. Socom, Vice City, Square's games, the Greatest Hits titles, and on and on.

This survey is suppose to make me believe the Xbox is suddenly going to change all that. With what? They have nothing to compete with Vice City, nothing to compete with the Greatest Hits titles that have drawn at least 10 people I know into buying a PS2. I think Xbox has enough to have a solid second place holiday season, but they will not touch Sony in sales.

The Xbox has found a place in the hearts of the real hardcore gamers I know (just like the Dreamcast did), but the PS2 is the system for the masses. Believe me when joe six pack comes off the street looking for a game system at Best Buy he looks at the PS2 and its huge game section and walks home with a PS2. I've seen it over and over. The Xbox and Game Cube marketing just doesn't seem to hit home with the average consumer.

Get Me Coffee

Kellehair, You can't deny that Nintendo's MAIN focus (not saying you can't have 2-4 games mature games) is on children/family games. It's clear as day that Nintendo wants to be the "FAMILY" system.