The No. 1 reason for choosing PlayStation 4 is better resolution, according to a U.S. survey by market research firm Nielsen.
PlayStation 4 is leading the console war, selling 18.5 million consoles since its November 2013 launch. In comparison, Xbox One has sold an estimated 10 million, and Nintendo’s Wii U has sold 9.2 million systems to date. Nielsen’s survey showed the top five reasons why owners picked their particular machine. With console gaming worth $15 billion in the U.S. alone, these are important factors to understand.
PlayStation 4 versions of many multiplatform games display at a better resolution compared to Xbox One — including recent big-hitters like Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Dragon Age: Inquisition — and that was the top reason respondents gave for buying PS4. Other key factors were the inclusion of a Blu-ray player, the PS4’s game library, and the that it’s “what the family wants.”
Above: The reasons why gamers chose their current gen systems are pretty diverse.
The Xbox One also includes a Blu-ray player, of course, which shows that Microsoft might need to review its promotion around certain features. Microsoft initially launced Xbox One with a huge focus on its multimedia capabilities, but it obviously didn’t shout loudly enough about that you can use it to watch Blu-ray movies.
The top reason for choosing Xbox One was the brand, likely due to the strong showing of the Xbox 360 in the U.S. during the previous console generation. In fact, Nielsen revealed that 76 percent of Xbox One owners previously owned an Xbox 360.
Xbox One owners also pointed to innovative features and faster processing power as top reasons for picking their system, along with exclusive games and the fun-factor.
It’s not clear whether faster processing power is a direct comparison to rivals machines or a reference to improvements over the previous hardware generation, but the reason appeared in the list for both Xbox One and PS4.
Nintendo’s family-friendly image held out in the top reasons for choosing Wii U. The fun-factor and the fact that it is better for kids were two of the top three reasons, along with its value for money — it’s currently the cheapest of the three major consoles. Exclusive games also factored highly, with Nintendo’s exclusive titles like Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and Mario Kart 8 being some of the best games we saw last year.
Finally, Wii U owners shared the importance of its backward compatibility with the Wii, which sold over 101 million systems worldwide. Wii U is the only one of the three current consoles which offers backward compatibility with physical titles.
Above: Nielsen’s recent survey on lifetime console ownership showed strong brand attachment to Xbox.