Obscure researcher finds PS3 price acceptance from small online sample
A new 100 page media report was released today by a small research firm suggesting that a large majority of US consumers are okay with paying $500-600 for a shiny black PS3 next month at launch. This is the second positive look at the PS3 in as many days despite Sony's "we don't need no stinkin' publicity" attitude.
Next-Gen reports: "According to the study by Los Angeles based Interpret, 8.9 million U.S consumers 'are prepared' to pay full price ($500 or $600) for the PlayStation 3 this fall, compared to 5.7 million consumers who are willing to buy Wii at $250 and just 800,000 people who are willing to pay full price for Xbox 360 ($300 to $400)."
The data comes from a sample of 2,000 online interviews conducted with 12-54 year-olds and weighted against 2004 census data. The study also proposes that Wii will be the spoiler to Sony's and Microsoft's market share party citing strong interest from a "wide distribution across ages and gender" as opposed to just younger or older hard core gamers.
Some other notable findings from the research:
People are waiting to see the PS3 before buying a 360 or Wii
Microsoft is still only attracting very hardcore gamers with 360
Key driver for consumer purchases of new consoles are games (especially exclusives) not multimedia capabilities
[Thanks, Jo and vaylen]
