Verizon Survey Shows 1 in 3 Would Give Up Their Car for Next-gen Game System
posted Saturday Nov 16, 2013 by Nicholas DiMeo
Verizon FiOS took a survey, of hardcore gamers (dubbed Tech Fans on the survey) and normal people (General Population), on whether or not the group would want video streaming, a next-gen console and other things. Turns out, a third of the 900-plus people polled said they would be willing to sacrifice their car for six months in order to be one of the first people to put their hands on an Xbox One or PlayStation 4.
These results were shared at the Engadget Expand conference and presented by Chris Melissinos, from business strategy and development of Verizon.
This time of year has historically been great for generations of gamers from the debut of the home version of Pong in 1975, to the release of the PS4 and Xbox One. Gaming and technology continue to spread deeper into society and are becoming a bigger part of our lives. So we wanted to reveal how people feel about the technology they love and what they want to see in their connected homes, which even in today's mobile world remain the hub of their digital lifestyles.
Here's some facts that oppose a good majority of the Internet saying that they do not want to watch video content through their video game console, and that game console are meant for just gaming. 69 percent of Tech Fans would want to stream video from a game console, and 58 percent of the General Population agreed. 43 percent of the total group also said they wouldn't mind shopping from their console and almost half said they would prefer to stream music from their game devices. Talk about a console doing things other than just gaming.
And I wouldn't be covering a game console survey if I didn't flame the console war a bit. 50 percent of Tech Fans said they'd purchase an Xbox One when it comes out, meaning the other half said the same about a PS4. For the General Population group, 44 percent said they'd want an Xbox One and 50 percent wanted a PS4. So there actually isn't that much of a disparity between the two sides, regardless of the slanted views you may run across online. Moving into the cloud-based side of gaming, 54 percent of the General Population said they'd prefer to download video games online or play them from the cloud instead of buying the disc. 59 percent said they'd prefer to play games in the cloud and not worry about storage on the console. This all ties into the infrastructure that is cloud gaming and that 300,000 new servers may prove beneficial over the long haul, especially when Sony has not disclosed if they've upgraded servers after purchasing Gaikai.
There's some other interesting results as well, and you can check those out in the source link below, but the main thing here is a lot of people really do want their next-gen consoles to excel at more than just gaming, and an overwhelming amount of regular people want to consume content on the devices. This seems lines up perfectly with the Xbox campaign of making sure it's the center of all your family entertainment, supported by set-top box pass-through. It also lines up with the PS3 being the number one device for Netflix streaming, so there's a lot of pros on both sides of the fence. What are your thoughts on all of this? Do you really want a game device to just game, having to switch inputs to accomplish simple tasks? Sound off in the comments section, but please don't just yell "PC MASTER RACE," because we all know more wires in the living room is really just a pain.