PS3 360 Wii: National Survey Shows Which Is Most Wanted For The Holidays

In a survey located here three in four (74%) have at least one digital lifestyle product on their wish lists leading up to the Christmas season according to the national survey of 1,200 American consumers by Solutions Research Group. Three surveys were conducted including: Top 10 Overall. Top 10 For Men, and Top 10 For Women. HDTV sets and Windows Laptops topped the overall top 10 list. Where did the PS3, 360, and Wii come in on these top 10 lists? Read on to see the break down.

Top 10 Overall

1. Flat Screen High Definition TV 35%
2. New Laptop Computer (Windows) 20%
3. New Digital Camera 17%
4. New Desktop Computer (Windows) 14%
5. GPS Navigation System for the car 10%
6. New Cell Phone 10%
7. New Digital Video Camera 9%
8. Nintendo Wii 9%
9. Sony PS3 7%
10. Blu-ray or HD DVD High Definition DVD Player 6%
    

Top 10 For Men

1. Flat screen High Definition TV 37%
2. New Laptop Computer (Windows) 21%
3. New Digital Camera 16%
4. New Desktop Computer 15%
5. GPS Navigation System for the car 11%
6. Sony PS3 10%
7. New Cell Phone 9%
8. New Digital Video Camera 8%
9. Xbox 360 8%
10. Nintendo Wii 8%

Top 10 for Women

1. Flat screen High Definition TV 33%
2. New Laptop Computer 19%
3. New Digital Camera 18%
4. New Desktop Computer (Windows) 13%
5. New Cell Phone 12%
6. New Digital Video Camera 11%
7. GPS Navigation System for the car 10%
8. Nintendo Wii 9%
9. Apple Laptop Computer 7%
10. Tivo or another DVR 6%

HD-capable flat screen TVs were number one with a bullet among all population subgroups with
35% of mentions. Interestingly, most of those HD sets will not deliver true HD to their owners, as only 2% also intend to get a HD box from their cable or satellite company (ranked at #20 on the list).

Apple’s iPhone was ranked #15 overall. The hottest Apple-branded product was a laptop, ranked #11 overall and #9 among women.

While no individual Apple product ranked higher than #11 on the wish lists, when combined, Apple-branded technology products make it to the top 5 overall with one-in-six considering purchase, suggesting strong potential holiday season for the company.

Men and women had six items in common in the top 10—the rest were unique by gender. Sony PS3 and Xbox 360 were on the top 10 list of men but did not make it to the top 10 list of women. On the other hand, TiVo/DVR and Apple laptops were in the top 10 for women but did not show upon men’s wish lists for the holidays.

Laptops were preferred over desktop PCs 2-to-1 among those 18-34. Nintendo Wii, Sony PS3 and Xbox 360 were all on 18-34 lists—Nintendo Wii was the highest ranked console, ranked #8 overall, edging out Sony PS3 which came in at #9. Xbox was ranked #12.

Digital cameras are popular across all age groups—ranked #2 or #3 in all age or gender groups. GPS navigation for cars is mainstreaming—it was ranked #5 item among men and #7 among women.

The information in this release comes from Digital Life America—Holiday 2007 Edition. The results cited are based on a survey of 1,200 online Americans aged 18 and older in September 2007 using a professionally-managed panel representative of the US online population. To maintain an unbiased perspective, Solutions Research Group funds its own syndicated research.

With Xbox 360's holiday bundles, the still rumored $399 40GB PS3 for North America, and the Wii's low entry price it'll be very interesting to see who comes out on top. It looks like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo will all have a great holiday season.

Source Link (PDF)

40 GB PS3: Will No PS2 Backwards Compatibilty Hinder Sales?

It was officially announced yesterday that a new low priced 40GB PS3 would be hitting overseas next week. A U.S. announcement has not been made at this time. See HERE for RDG's thoughts on that. The only complaint about this new model seems to be the lack of backwards compatibility with the PS2 game library. So lets take a look at whether this would truly hinder many sales.

With this model it seems as Sony is going primarily for PS2 owners who have not chosen to purchase the PS3 yet, whether it be due to price or due to the PS3 game library. With over 120 million PS2 owners out there why wouldn't they target this demographic?

Will the loss of b. c. be a big reason for people opting not to purchase this lower priced model? RDG does not think so and here is why.

The most obvious one is well PS2 owners own a PS2. So when they see that this model does not have b. c. with their existing library the next thought that will go through their mind will be whether or not they want to have 2 consoles in their entertainment system. Having both consoles to play your gaming library really isn't going to matter to the majority of people out there. Parents doing holiday shopping that are aware of the lack of b. c. are going to think, well "little johnny" has a PS2 for his PS2 games anyway or "little johnny" wants a PS3 to play PS3 games. Also note that this new PS3 sku can play PS1 games.

Now RDG has taken into consideration those PS2 owners that want to trade in their PS2 towards a PS3 in order to save more money. Well i have some bad news for those people. If you go through GameStop the trade in value for the "big PS2" is only $20 and the "slim PS2" is only $30 so as you can see someone wanting to go that route would only be saving a maximum of $30 towards the PS3 anyway.

So PS2 owners that can afford this new sku at the lower price will have really one decision to make and thats if they are alright with having two consoles to play their games. I think its safe to say that this is an easy decision and that the majority will go ahead with the purchase.

Now for the non PS2 owners that want a PS3, RDG thinks that we can all agree that if they are going to purchase a PS3 then they are doing it to play PS3 games and aren't worried about PS2 games or they would have purchased a PS2 by now.

The demographic that this lower priced PS3 will really appeal to is those wanting it for its blu-ray and media capabilities. The only complaint we can see about this is the 40GB hard drive but thanks to the PS3 this is easily solved by upgrading to a larger hard drive which Sony has made an easy option for the PS3.

Now their have been people saying that this can also be solved by Sony releasing a firmware update in the future which could be possible but one major thing that people also forget is the PlayStation Store and though it has been awhile since Sony has released a PS1 or PS2 game on the store this option is still available. Sony could begin to release their PS2 library through the PlayStation Store more aggressively if the lack of b. c. becomes an issue. As we've seen the price of these releases have been affordable but those not wanting to pay again can just play it on their PS2 or pay a fee to have a disc less upscaled version.

So as you can see for the most part lack of b. c. should not hinder many sales and that Sony does have the option to improve this by releasing a firmware update or tapping into the extensive PS2 library and releasing them over the PlayStation Store. The only people we can see not purchasing this lower priced model are those that still can not afford it at this price so to those we say "start saving your money now" because with the holiday lineup looking great and next years looking even better with Metal Gear Solid 4, Killzone 2, Final Fantasy XIII, and more your not going to want to miss out!

For those that can not live without the b. c. in the new PS3 you still do have the option of the 20GB, 60GB, or 80GB version.

$399 40GB PS3 To Be Released On Oct 30th

We're sure you've all heard the rumor of the $399 PS3 its been going around the web for awhile now lately but even way back in July predicted by a Microsoft employee. Rumors have pegged an official announcement in October. So doing a little searching and making a few calls and putting all the information together Real Deal Gaming has come up with a well informed/unconfirmed/educated guess of when this rumored $399 PS3 would finally hit store shelves. Read on for the evidence.

What we are going to do is show you some of the evidence that you can see with your own eyes so you can put the pieces of the puzzle together yourself. Our first piece of evidence is located HERE where you can see the release date for Spider-man 3 on Blu-ray is listed as Oct. 30th. One of the rumors around the net is that Sony will have the new 40GB released with a special Spider-man 3 bundle. This makes a lot of sense since Spider-man 3 is #15 on the list of highest grossing movies of all time and will sell very well once released on dvd and exclusively on Blu-ray. This move coupled with a lower priced PS3 and some heavy marketing and advertising would surely move quite a bit of PS3 consoles.

The next piece of evidence is located HERE at the official PlayStation Blog. You'll notice that Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction despite going gold is being delayed by one week to Oct 30th! Now pay close attention to what Greg Phillips Line Producer at SCEA says at the official PlayStation Blog he says "I’m happy to report that we’ve gone gold! The game is finished and will hit a store near you on October 30. As some of you know, this is a week later than the Oct 23rd date stated previously, but the extra wait will be worth it". Now the particular 8 words to note are "but the extra wait will be worth it". So a couple of things to take away from this is. Why would a game that has already gone gold be delayed by a week? Also why would a game in the gold status (meaning ready to be sent to the factory for the discs to be pressed) be worth the wait? They can't add anything else to it if the discs are already being pressed. So why the one week delay and why will it be worth it? Well Real Deal Gaming believes its because they want it released the same day as the 40GB $399 PS3. Also we've been told that their may actually be 3 types of 40GB $399 PS3's released between the 30th and the holiday season one being the stand alone console, one that comes with Spider-man 3 bundled in being dubbed "The PlayStation 3 Blu-ray Movie Bundle" (to help advertise and promote the Blu-ray and media side of the PS3 and one being bundled with Ratchet & Clank being dubbed "The PlayStaion 3 Gaming Bundle".(to help show the gaming side of the PS3) this would fall right in line with comments made by SCE President Kaz Harai in an aticle HERE at the Financial Times website. He is quoted saying "The PS3 is first and formost a videogames machine but we want to say - by the way, its a great Blu-ray player as well." Harai explained that the company would be working closely with Sony Pictures and Sony Entertainment, and that it was a "balancing act" to market the console as both a videogames machine and multimedia device.

Now I want you all to keep in mind that all this information is strictly still a rumor and that things can change between now and the 30th. But we here at Real Deal Gaming are pretty confident that this is close to the mark. With the Ratchet and Clank franchise being fairly popular and getting great reviews this would also be a great move for Sony and would also surely move many PS3's.

This strategy would appeal to those wanting to purchase the PS3 more for games and those wanting to purchase one more for Blu-ray and multimedia capabilities. And for the price of $399 this would be great strategy for Sony.

Also rumored is a PS3+PSP bundle for the holidays promoting already announced and unnannounced Remote Play abilities but we did not obtain any other details on this rumor.

Real Deal Gaming expects an official announcement to be on Oct. 29th the day before these 2 high profile releases. This would give Sony a great start going into the holidays especially with Black Friday a few weeks away from an Oct 30th release.

Real Deal Gaming wants to make it very clear that these things are still very much rumors though we believe the evidence speaks for it self. We still suggest you treat this as a rumor until an official announcement has been made.

PS3 Has No Games? Putting An End To The Myth

So today RDG decided to touch on a topic that's much debated on the web. We've been to enough gaming websites and forums to know that one of the biggest things argued about besides the price of the PS3 is that it has no games. So we're going to look at this statement a little bit and see how well it holds up.

PS3 was released in November of 06. The game that probably gained the most attention was Resistance: Fall of Man. I had my PS3 preordered and picked it up on launch day just like my Wii and in case you cared i bought my 360 in May of 06. My first game purchase was Resistance. I also want to mention that still to this day i find the game just at fun as i did last November online is a blast and the only other game I've played that tops it in online is Warhawk. Yes i was part of the beta and i must say that Warhawk is by far the best online gaming experience I've ever had.

Ok enough about that back to the issue at hand. What many people fail to realize is that backwards compatibility and the ability to play old games is a very important requirement in the eyes of gamers hence the reason why all 3 major console companies include it Wii can play Gamecube games and has the Virtual Console, Xbox 360 can play many Xbox games and the PS3 can play both PS2 and PS1 games. So by saying the PS3 has no games is like saying no one will be playing PS1 and PS2 games on their PS3.

A recent study from the NPD came out that said that only 30% of 360 gamers are aware of High Definition graphics for their console and only 40% of PS3 gamers are aware of Blu-ray being built in. So what does that tell us. The majority of consumers are not purchasing a PS3 or 360 for high definition picture quality. So that tells us the majority of them would have no problem playing older standard definition games on their new system. (Also both 360 and PS3 upconvert to a higher resolution for older games.) So with that being the case their are thousands of PS1 and PS2 games that that they can choose to play.

Not to point the finger at my fellow 360 owners but honestly the majority of the people that say the PS3 has no games are 360 owners that don't own a PS3. Also the 360 has more games due to its earlier release which was a full year. Also the few PS3 owners that say it has no games really can't say it either. They could say the PS3 doesn't have enough games that they like to play and for that to even be a legit statement they would not be owners of PS2 or PS1 games. And to the minority that complain that own a PS3 and have PS2 games i have one question. Why did you purchase the PS3 so early in its life cycle if you felt it didn't offer enough for you? Well for those PS3 owners or potential buyers out there the time has come. Starting on August 28th the games will start being released. We get 3 highly anticipated games all within a 2 1/2 week time frame and they are the following.

Warhawk 8/28/07
Lair 9/4/07
Heavenly Sword 9/12/07

There are several great games already released for PS3 also here are 3 of them

Resistance: Fall of Man

MotorStorm

Ninja Gaiden Sigma

And for a good list of PS1 and PS2 games i suggest going to wikipedia.com type in "List of PlayStation 1 Games" or "List of PlayStation 2 Games" to get a pretty large list.

I usually like to end my posts with a helpful tip so here goes.

This applies to all consoles. I am the type of gamer that doesn't always trust a gaming sites review of a game (this being said its still a good idea to read them if you trust the site). I prefer to play it myself or read what a lot of other players say. So my tip is go to Gamefly.com find your game of choice and click on User Reviews. I usually sort the list by the lowest rating to read the negative things first. By reading these you can grasp a better understanding of what fellow gamers thought of the game and this can be the deciding factor of whether you should skip, rent, or purchase the game.

Wii Love You Wii Hate You

The month is November the year is 2006 and two major consoles would be released a couple days apart. You know what i'm referring to. The Sony PS3 and the Nintendo Wii but for this post we are going to concentrate on the Wii. If someone would have asked me back in November if i thought the Wii would be where it is today I would have laughed in their face. Not because i didn't think the Wii would do good but because i didn't think it would be a hit so fast. In this case i don't get the last laugh.......or do I?

I had my Wii already preordered for launch. I was excited to try out this new console that everyone was talking about. I had visions of playing Wii sports with friends and gloating that i could not be beaten. When i walked into my local Gamestop i purchased a Wii, extra controller, and Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess. I remember that day well because i went on my lunch break and had to wait another 5 hours before i could get home and set it up. So finally i got home and set it up. I lived with 3 roommates at the time and they were just as excited as i was.

To shorten this story up a bit for the following 2 months it was nothing but fun playing Wii sports with my roommates and friends and playing Zelda when i could get the console to myself. In December i went out of town to visit my parents and the Wii was a hit there as well. While i was gone one of my roommates purchased a Wii for himself because it was so much fun and before i left to go back home i had talked one of my sisters into purchasing a Wii for her and her husband. The end of January rolled around and i had just beaten Zelda. By this time i had grown tired of Wii sports. I was a pro in each sport and it was rare that my roommates could beat me. Then reality set in. Wii was not fun anymore. I rented almost every game that was released at that time and i could not find anything to bring back the joy i used to have. I had beaten Zelda and even though i know i had missed many things in my quest and that it was so much fun to play i had no desire to replay it.

Here we are in August and i've rented many games but still have not found one to make me play the Wii like i had when i first purchased it. To be honest i sometimes i forget i own a Wii because i own a PS3 and 360 and they get the most play time. I watched Nintendo's E3 2007 press conference and i've searched the net for all upcoming game releases and news and the only thing that i'm remotely excited for is Mario Galaxy and possibly Wii fit. That is not enough. I can easily rattle off about 10-15 games each for PS3 and 360 that i'm excited for that will be released between now and the middle of next year. So whats wrong with the Wii? Will it truly turn out to be a fad? Will Wii owners such as myself start to tell friends and family that its just not fun anymore? I don't live with my roommates any more but i still talk to them and the one that owns a Wii feels the same way i do. He hasn't played in months. My sister who i talked into purchasing one hasn't played in months either. And everyone i know that owns one has said the same thing. Its not that the Wii doesn't have any good games its more that the Wii doesn't have any long lasting immersive games that make you want to come back for more. This would not be a huge problem if this only reflected current releases but it is the same with upcoming releases. Nintendo has done a great job at bringing new people in to play games but i fear that this will not last very much longer once the word starts getting out that the fun factor dies only after a few months.

So to end this post i will say i will keep my Wii because i don't want to miss out on the chance of a great game being released and i still want to play Mario Galaxy. I must confess though that overall i am very disappointed that my purchase of the Wii has not given me the same gaming satisfaction that both the PS3 and 360 have. So in the end Wii I Hate Wii I Love You.