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WoW #1 in new Nielsen game ranking system
Nielsen, the people who tabulate the television ratings, has launched a new game ranking system called Nielsen GamePlay Metrics and WoW is ranked number one in PC Games for the month of June. This is hardly surprising with 9 million current subscribers, but the fact that it outranks the next highest PC game by more than 4 times is pretty amazing. Where do they get their numbers? Weekly surveys as described in their press release: Nielsen GamePlay Metrics uses PC data collected from the Nielsen's Video Game Tracking Survey. Video Game Tracking is a weekly online survey of 1200 gamers 7 - 54 years of age. Qualifications include ownership of a console or PC, play video games at least 1 hour per week and have purchased at least one or more video games in the last 6 months. The Video Game Tracking online survey has been in the field for more than two years (104+ weeks).It is good to see a ranking system based on what games are being played instead of how many are sold. They are reporting just over 17 hours a week average WoW playtime. For a level 70, that's about 3 well run raids... or 2 torturous raid catastrophes... or 4 weeknight new boss attempts with an extra night of farming the money required for repair bills.How do you spend your 17 hours a week?
Nielsen stats: PlayStation 2 most played system in June
Warning: Nearly 90% of this post is comprised of statistical data. According to a recently released Nielsen GamePlay Metrics report, the PlayStation 2 was the most played system in June, accounting for 42.3% of total video game console usage for the month. Once the shock of learning that dissipates, consider that in second place with 21.3% usage is the mysterious "other," which the report denotes as "any other console systems found in the home" excluding current and previous generation systems. The Xbox 360 took up 8% of the time, double that of the Wii and 7.5% higher than the PlayStation 3. The PS3 did, however, record the longest individual usage sessions (internet says: "Cos they're watching Hitch on Blu-ray lolz!"), an average one lasting 83 minutes. The Xbox 360 experienced the highest number of sessions per day (internet says: "It's all those system reboots amirite?"), each with an average duration of 61 minutes. An average session logged with the Wii is reported to be 57 minutes long (internet says: "Minigames oh noes!"). This Nielsen GamePlay Metrics sample includes approximately 33,000 individuals comprising over 12,000 households. The data is said to be collected through a combination of the Nielsen People Meter TV sample and a "proprietary audio signature library" that matches unique audio signatures of each tracked game on the relevant console platforms. Interestingly, the report also observes that "Wii households are upscale. They are more likely to earn more than $100,000 income per year." What say you to that, oh insightful internet?
PS3 owners spend more time with the console than any other
Nielsen just released their monthly GamePlay Metrics report, and it showed that PS3 owners use their consoles much longer than any other systems. The average session with a PS3 was 83 minutes in the month of June. In comparison, the average Xbox 360 session lasted 61 minutes, and the average Wii session lasted only 57 minutes. Could super-long Super Stardust HD play sessions be responsible for PS3's unusually long play time?How did Nielsen get these numbers? According to their press release, "Nielsen GamePlay Metrics uses console data collected from the Nielsen's People Meter TV sample combined with Nielsen GamePlay Metrics' proprietary audio signature library that matches the unique audio signature of every game tracked on the six most widely available video game consoles, including PlayStation 2, PLAYSTATION 3, Xbox, Xbox 360, Wii and GameCube. The GamePlay Metrics user sample includes more than 12,000 households with approximately 33,000 individuals."Although PS3 owners reported played the longest average sessions, they still account for only 1.5% of the total gameplay minutes played last month. The PS2 is still the most played console, accounting for more than 42% of total gameplay time.
HD DVD touts sales growth over Blu-ray's decline
Besides moving low-priced HD DVD players, the HD DVD Promotional Group is taking advantage of Home Media Expo 2007 to announce its most recent sales data, with HD DVD going up, and Blu-ray going down. Specifically, the Nielsen Netratings mentioned show HD DVD hardware sales up 37 percent, and software sales up 20 percent from the first to the second quarter of this year. Over the same period, overall Blu-ray hardware sales (no word on if this includes the PlayStation 3 or not) were down 27 percent and software sales down 5 percent. Shockingly, this trend is attributed to aggressive marketing campaigns and cheaper standalone HD DVD players hitting the market, causing a 183 percent increase in dedicated player sales for the quarter, and over 180,000 players (up from 100k back in April) sold altogether. Whether HD DVD focus on standalones over consoles gives them an edge is unknown, but it seems like Blu-ray may be catching on to the strategy of giving away movies and cutting prices.
Nielsen tracking in-game ads for Sony
Sony Computer Entertainment America and The Nielsen Company want to track your stats. Specifically, the two companies have teamed up to "develop a measurement system for game network advertising that will help make game software a more competitive advertising platform," according to the press release. SCEA will "share with Nielsen game network traffic and other data" from PS3 titles, PlayStation Network and the upcoming social MMO Home, at first only in North America -- details beyond that are sketchy, but Nielson calls the effort "fully-transparent" in the press release. The results will be used "to deliver the right ad to the right person at the right time" and to help advertisers figure out a CPM, or cost per impression, for in-game ads.The initial results of the partnership are expected later this year. Expect more in-game ads you're less inclined to ignore and possibly the strange feeling that Big Brother is critiquing your gamer skills.[Via PS3 Fanboy]
SCEA partners with Nielsen to track in-game advertising
Sony has revealed a new partnership with The Nielsen Company, who specialise in market research, in order to better track the success of in-game advertising. Initially being tested in North America exclusively, the partnership will allow Sony to monitor the reach, frequency and effectiveness of in-game advertising. Sony will share usage statistics from the PlayStation Network with The Nielsen Company, including which games people are playing most and what content they are accessing within Home, in order to better focus advertising efforts into the right people and areas. Advertisers will be able to look at the collated data and decide for themselves where they would like to place their adverts. They will also be able to see exactly how those ads are performing. What this means to you is: not a lot. If anything, you'll end up seeing more ads that you care about, rather than ignore. We imagine this will become most prominent with the launch of Home, as it provides a much larger scope for advertising than the PSN does currently. Overall though, if in-game advertising is something we have to put up with, then we'd rather it be for a product we want to buy. This partnership should increase the chances of that happening.
Nielsen to begin tracking HDTV penetration
The company that keeps track of what we watch on TV is going to start reporting HDTV penetration starting this fall. They haven't exactly figured out whether a HD home must receive at least one exclusive HD network or not, but are considering counting both; with and without. This is great news for HD fans, because when Nielsen counts us media companies know we exist, and with any luck they will try to appeal to us the only way they can: with more HD.
Over 100,000 standalone HD DVD players sold in North America
Sure, moving 100,000 units doesn't seem all that extraordinary when you consider that Microsoft managed to foist off 92,000 of its own add-ons last Christmas, but the number does manage to garner a bit more respect when you realize that the Xbox 360 addition nor HD DVD PC drives are included in it. The North American HD-DVD Promotional Group is now claiming that sales of set-top HD DVD players have finally hit the 100k mark, presumably ready to smack down that Blu-ray supremacy talk and prove that the recent surge in disc sales was more than a well-planned fluke. Of course, claiming the feat really says nothing in the grand scheme of the ongoing format war, but we can officially start the countdown until the Blu-ray camp proudly trounces these figures and yet again claims momentary dominance.[Via TGDaily]
Nintendo website has been crushing the competition
According to the latest numbers, Nintendo.com saw a rise of 91% in its unique visitors over the last year, which when compared to the numbers of its competitor's sites, shows that the online consensus is that the Wii rocks. Sony's Playstation.com website saw a decline in these visitors by 8%, while Microsoft's Xbox.com saw an increase of 47%, which is impressive, however dwarfed by Nintendo's huge increase in traffic. The numbers come courtesy of Nielsen-NetRatings.
Nintendo.com grows 91% as Playstation.com shrinks 8%
Wii's recent popularity (likely amplified by the online folk) helped increase Nintendo.com's unique visitors by 91% over last year, this in stark contrast to Playstation.com's 8% decrease of total unique visitors according to a Nielsen/NetRatings report released today. Xbox.com saw a 47% traffic increase over last year. Site Feb '06Feb '07 YOY Growth Nintendo.com 856 1,631 91% Xbox.com 827 1,218 47% PlayStation.com 1,105 1,016 -8% That's a good metric showing how both Nintendo's and Microsoft's online audiences have grown as PlayStation enthusiasm (at least to its proper website) has dwindled. Web junkies click onward for the full skinny on all that traffic jazz. [Image: zerosign.net]
Nielsen: One-third of TV owners play game consoles
Nielsen Media Research, best know for its TV ratings, has released an outline the American video game landscape in the form of "The State of the Console" report. Among the more interesting findings:
