Video Gamers Don't Care About HD
Video game polls and their results are rarely surprising or, indeed, all that interesting. They usually do things like rate Bowser vs. Dracula to see who's the coolest villain (Bowser) or ask whether you'd rather marry Samus or Princess Peach (toooootally Samus). But, stats wizards NPD Group has run a surprisingly interesting series of polls that indicate gamers are largely clueless about the non-gaming capabilities of their shiny new consoles. This goes for both Sony and Microsoft fans.
According to the poll, 40% of PlayStation 3 (PS3) owners, for example, said they had no idea their systems could play high-definition Blu-ray movie discs, and fewer than half of those actually had played one. This is surprising, considering most gamers receive one or more high-definition disc titles when they buy their consoles. But there's more: 50% of PS3 owners didn't even know their consoles were optimized for HD televisions, compared with an even more staggering 70% of Xbox 360 owners.
So, to ensure that you don't become part of the shamed majority of these polls, here's a quick run-down of what these two can do out of the box:
PlayStation 3
- Can:
- Support HD resolutions up to 1080p
- Play Blu-ray movies
- Play SACDs
- Up-convert DVD movies
- Stream media from networked computers
- Play most PlayStation and PS2 games
- Cause brownouts in your neighborhood
- Can't:
- Play most Windows Media files
- Download videos for rent
- Rumble controllers
- Can:
- Support HD resolutions up to 1080p
- Up-convert DVD movies
- Stream media from networked computers
- Download movies and TV shows for rent or purchase
- Keep your game room nice and warm
- Can't:
- Play many non-Windows Media files
- Play many original Xbox games
- Make long-term commitments to HDD-based storage devices
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Char Aznable @ Aug 14th 2007 9:32AM
Of course we don't care we only care if the system has great games to play or not.
ronteal55 @ Aug 14th 2007 10:17AM
Interesting how Tim Stevens took what could have been a helpful, informative article and turned it into an insulting, pithy commentary on gaming culture. People who don't know that the PS3 can play Blu-ray movies are a "shamed majority"? Video game polls are unsurprising and uninteresting? Sure, picking apart a piece of technology and condemning those who aren't aware of all the superfulous functions is the bread and butter of any tech "journalist", but come on! Video game polls aren't for stuffy tech bloggers--they're for people who like and appreciate video games. And Char's comment is dead on: the games are the whole reason we buy the systems in the first place. So what if the X-Box 360 can stream video from networks? I have a computer for that! It's nice that these systems can do so much more, but if gamers are focused on the GAMES (God forbid), does that automatically make them "clueless" and "shamed"? I don't know what audience this article was supposed to be written for, but if it was meant for the people who OWN these systems, it might have been a better idea to write it so it didn't come off as condescending and elitist, something Stevens just whipped up while sitting on the john.
"Keep your game room nice and warm," indeed!
DrZaius @ Aug 14th 2007 12:09PM
High defi-WHA?
KingofSol @ Aug 15th 2007 12:29AM
That just proves why Microsoft made the right move by not including HD player with their system. They were able to keep the cost down and appeal to what the gamers really want...MORE GAMES!
adam @ Sep 11th 2007 7:28PM
ok not to be rude or anything but i dont understand most of this article. I own both a Ps3 and an xbox360 and i love them both. the thing i dont understand is this "high definition"???? ive never heard of it and i guess that puts me in the group of people who dont know about the other features of their consoles. my tv says Sony kdl46xbr2 on it. is that good? please fill me in as i have No clue what all this "high definition" talk is about.
Sornom @ Oct 16th 2007 12:34PM
It's really sad that some people spend hundreds of dollars on a console and they don't even know what it can do. I agree that it is a "shamed majority". When I bought my ps3 I updated to an HDTV the next day.