PlayStation 2 Defeats Xbox and GameCube In Battle for the Living Room In 2002

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Aug. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- Twenty-nine percent of all video gamers own a PlayStation 2, versus ten percent for the GameCube and eight percent for the Xbox, according to the "Digital Gaming in America Survey," a marketing survey about the demographics of the game industry released today by the Ziff Davis Media Game Group at their Sixth Electronic Gaming Summit in Napa, California. This annual survey helps the game industry keep a finger on the pulse of current market trends and provides important snapshots of consumers and their game buying habits.

With a 14.1 million-user base as of July 2002, Sony's PlayStation 2 has a commanding edge over its competitors: Nintendo's GameCube boasts 4.8 million households and Xbox comes in third with 3.8 million. The survey revealed that although falling behind in 2002, there is good news ahead regarding Microsoft's Xbox console.

When queried, "what console do you plan to buy?" 17 percent of gamers planned on a PlayStation 2, 15 percent an Xbox and 9 percent a GameCube. Because the study is designed to be projected against all U.S. households, those percentages give Sony the lead in 2003 with a 24.1 million user-base, Microsoft will take second place with a 13.7 million and Nintendo third with an 11.2 million. And all three systems are very close in customer satisfaction, with owners of the PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox rating each console at eighty-eight, eighty-seven and eighty-one percent as "very satisfactory."

The contest over the future of online games bodes well for Microsoft's ambitions with 50 percent of respondents who own an Xbox also have a broadband connection, versus 41 percent of PlayStation 2 owners and 31 percent of GameCube owners.

For the first time in the six-year annual survey, the Ziff Davis Media Game Group quantified the familiarity and willingness for a gamer to buy a sequel or next game in that franchise.

According to Group Publisher Lee Uniacke, "We decided to give game publishers and industry watchers an independent measure of what franchises are hot and which ones are not." According to the survey, the top ten franchises are:

     Game
     1.  Mario
     2.  Star Wars
     3.  Donkey Kong
     4.  Grand Theft Auto
     5.  Sonic
     6.  Spiderman
     7.  Legend of Zelda
     8.  The SIMS
     9.  Pac-Man
     10. Final Fantasy

About the top ten sequels Uniacke stated, "The biggest surprise was that Grand Theft Auto came out of nowhere to bump down venerable series like Final Fantasy and Legend of Zelda. Only one PC game -- The SIMS -- made the list, and Pac Man, a true blast from the past, was a welcome addition."

The survey also revealed a variety of interesting data about gamers, their interests and their lifestyles:

    * For those who consider themselves "core gamers," they talk about video
      games approximately three hours a week, almost three times as much as
      average video gamers, spend $96.9 a month on video games alone, almost
      six times the average gamer, and plan to buy 3 games in the next 60
      days, five times the average gamer. And 86 percent say they have
      purchased a game after renting it

    * "Core gamers" also have distinct shopping habits. 60 percent buy used
      games and 42 percent trade in old games for store credit, while only 5
      percent of video gamers have sold a game on Ebay.

    * 28 percent of total video gamers purchased games at Wal-Mart, up from 26
      percent in 2001, edging out Best Buy as the retail outlet of choice with
      only 16 percent of gamers, down from 19 percent in 2001.

The blind survey of two thousand people was conducted by the Strategy Group, an independent third-party research company, through national random- digit dialing to find video and PC gamers. The fieldwork closed in July 2002.