So Web Watch is in the process of packing up some of our video game systems and putting them away. The PS2 and Xbox Classic are no longer needed, and don’t even get us started on the TurboGrafx or Sega Genesis that were also taking up precious shelf space.
We’ll leave the Wii and PS3 where they are as we still use those regularly, as we anxiously await the long-rumored Xbox 720 to come out to replace the Xbox 360.
So what does all this mean? We’re not the only ones with older gaming systems still hanging around and being used.
But what are they being used for? It’s not always what you think.
Nielsen Research recently surveyed video game owners about what they did with their systems. They focused on just the XBox 360, Sony Playstation 3, and Nintendo Wii:
- The majority of use for all three systems was, not surprisingly, playing video games. Local play ranked highest for all three systems.
- XBox owners played a lot more online games than did PS3 or Wii owners. This also isn’t surprising as XBox Live has a more robust online gaming community then the other two systems have.
- The biggest surprise comes in watching on-demand video or using streaming services like Netflix. Wii users are much more likely to use their Wii for this purpose than the other two systems combined! It’s almost a dead-heat between the Xbox and PS3 for their usage for streaming.
- The PS3 was positioned as a Blu-Ray player, and almost a quarter of time is spent using that feature.
Overall streaming usage on the video game systems is up 7% over 2010, and the majority of this can be attributed to two things: the rise of Netflix streaming, and the availability of streaming services on the Wii.
So what do you use your gaming system for? If it’s not just for playing games, tell us more in the comments…