14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft's Xbox 360 became very popular among end users in USA since its launch on November 22. But it seems that PlayStation 3, Sony's next generation gaming console is even more popular among US gamers, researchers say.
NPD Group conducted a study that revealed brand loyalty is an important factor in the purchase intent. This means that a higher percentage of those interested in purchasing each next generation system own the current generation system from the same manufacturer. Sony's PS2 is now still popular in USA, with sales of over 42 million consoles, and it is more likely that these users, or at least their majority, buy Sony's PS3 instead of the new Xbox.
The report also shows that the majority of current generation system owners plan on continuing to play with the system they currently own and 58 percent will continue purchasing games for the system they already have.
Many of the current generation system owners said that they are not willing to pay more for a newer system, and that are going to wait for them to go on sale or other price drops.
"When it comes to next-generation home video game console systems, Sony's PlayStation 3 has the highest awareness, familiarity and purchase intent among total respondents, gamers and non-gamers, followed by Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Revolution," says NPD's most recent report, Next Generation Console Study.