PS3 growing, but some owners slow to try Blu-ray
PHYSICAL: Consoles are selling faster, but most buyers are using it to play games
By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 10/16/2009
OCT. 16 | PHYSICAL: Consumers are buying PlayStation 3 at a faster clip since the console’s price drop last month, but not all new owners will immediately become Blu-ray Disc movie converts.
According to an August study by NPD Group, 34% of PS3 owners had never tried to watch Blu-ray movies on their machine. That result is virtually unchanged from responses given during a similar study in August 2008.
Two-thirds of PS3 owners had watched Blu-ray movies, however, which is a higher percentage of owners who watched DVDs on the PlayStation 2 at a similar point in its lifecycle, according to NPD.
“It’s at a fairly high level, where it took years for PS2 owners to use [that console] for DVD,” NPD analyst Russ Crupnick said. “Most PS3 people think of it as a gaming device, but there is a reasonable level of awareness and intended use for Blu-ray.”
When NPD asked PS3 owners in August why they purchased the console, 58% said it was mostly to play games; 34% said it was for enjoying games and Blu-ray movies equally; and 8% said mostly for Blu-ray movies. The responses were consistent with similar NPD research a year earlier.
PS3 is now working its way into the households of casual gamers. They might be less enthusiastic about new technology than earlier buyers, however, and NPD believes these new buyers might use the machine even less as a Blu-ray movie player.
PS3 owners who have had their machines for some time tend to buy more Blu-ray movies than DVDs, according to NPD, while newer owners buy more DVDs than Blu-rays.
“Newer owners are somewhat more oriented to DVD than Blu-ray,” Crupnick said. “The later you get into an adoption cycle, the more you’re not getting the super aficionado. These are people who are tougher to convince about the benefits of Blu-ray and who are sensitive to price.”
Sony is hoping to drive momentum for the PS3 by launching a higher capacity 250GB model for $349 on Nov. 3.
This PS3 model is $50 more than the current 120GB $299 model, but it is priced $50 less than when the console first debuted at less than 100GB capacity. Sony wants to answer growing demand for game/film/TV downloads from its PlayStation Store with the higher storage capacity.
Its $299 model has already been gaining steam since Sony cut its price by $100 in September. During that first week on shelves, the discounted PS3 climbed 300% in unit sales over the week prior to the price cut, according to Sony.
NPD is expected to report on September’s overall videogame industry performance, encompassing stepped up $299 PS3 results, on Monday, Oct. 19.
