Average Joe's criteria when buying a console

[_xxx_]

Inspired by the Wii thread, I'd like to know your opinion. What are the things that will influence the choice of our non-technical "Average Joe"?

Please don't drift off into technical comparisons, we're playing a dumb, not-so-in-the-know customer here. My ideas, just for the sake of discussion:

for Wii:
- cool new controller
- cheap
- backwards compatibility and dirt cheap older games
- cheaper new games
- many cool exclusive titles

against:
- less powerful than the competition
- less mature titles?

for XB360:
- muscle
- great online stuff
- a few cool exclusive titles
- it's available
- HDDVD

against:
- expensive
- it's from M$
- not enough great exclusive games as of yet
- more expensive games
- HDDVD not inclusive in the basic version

for PS3:
- even more muscle
- many cool exclusive games for sure
- Blu-Ray
- HD
- some sort of net browser?
- an OS/API which will allow third party software? ("it's a computer", after all )

against:
- even more expensive
- it's from Sony
- not many great games in the beginning (though it's a given that there will be many soon, but we don't know for sure)
- BluRay might be a no-go


Ok, that's just from the top of my head. What do you think? Try to think like a marketing guy.

 

[hey69]

WOAH THE NEW PLAYSTATION ... says enough for a lot of people.
even be ignorant about what Wii or that microsoft has a console.

if Wii has killer aps they could take the attention of average Jaques ..
like the ps2 webcam and buzzgames brought a whole lot of new customers.


you forgot the

Nintendo
against : Its from nintendo

 

[rabidrabbit]

Do you mean HD, not HDDVD in the xbox360 for/against?

I'd add the gyro controller to the "for PS3".
It's an exciting enough feature for the average joe too

 

[Acert93]

What I would add, and I think relevant in the big picture of their general market strategies and strengths, are the following:

PS3 -- Strong Japanese Developer Support

X360 -- Strong PC Developer Support

I think average Joe's who like Japanese/traditional console games see the PS3 as the home for that content; likewise those who enjoy PC style games but don't have a high end PC can get a lot of PC content on their relatively cheap $300 X360.

But maybe a more direct method, based on last gens best sellers, would go something like when looking at the average American consumer:

• GTA? (All three last gen broke 10M in sales!)
• Madden? (3M-6M every year and now the only football game in town)
• Halo? (Nearly 14M units sold between the two)

Of course whatever new "killer app" will fall in that category (note that 2 of those were new next gen [I don't condiser the 2D GTAs as the same as GTA3]).

Another average Joe criteria, at a basic level, is what they want out of it.

Online?
Unique gameplay/controller?

I think there are many levels of filters that coincide with pricing and game library. Of course one big thing is how these companies reach parents who buy these things for their kids. Services that may appeal to parents (like to middle aged women who are a surprisingly large demographic of gamers) could be a subtle, but persuasive tool. How to market that and to convey "Hey, we have Solitare!" is another issue all together.

 

[nintenho]

I think it matters how much research the person does. Or at least what they hear on major news channels. In the PS2's first year it only sold 9 million and maybe it was when GC and XBOX came out that most people considered the next generation to begin and when they went in to buy something they went for the PS2? Something tells me there's a lot of impulse buyers but let's look at handhelds (forgive me). Before the DS and PSP everybody assumed the PSP would win with all of it's obvious advantages but the comfort factor turned out to be the biggest problem. You have this "expensive non-nintendo handheld with a nipple-shaped nub that calls itself anologue and short battery life and load time." so while it had many obvious advantages at first customers went to DS and now each handheld has it's own niche and different games for each one. I don't think that being able to play high definition movies is a big concern for the average joe but things like hard drive and holiday line up could change everything for the consoles. For PS3, there's going to be shortages until 2007. For Wii, people might be too stroked out to buy one on impulse unless they have some really well made demos. For 360, there's nothing to set it apart other then the fact that it's getting some very good games. What do people look at? I really want to know.

 

[_xxx_]

As said, the list is just a quick summary of what I could think of in a few minutes so surely I forgot lots of stuff, thus the discussion

I'd like to add "probably the best marketing" and "superb ads" for the PS3. I have yet to see a decent ad/commercial for the XB360 on the TV here in Germania, while I still can remember some great ads from Sony from 2-3 years ago and they still keep coming. This could influence many potential buyers for sure.

 

[Skrying]

If you're going to have a net browser for PS3 then add that also to the Wii. Nintendo has annouced already that the guys at Opera will have a version of that great browser for the Wii, they also will have one for the DS.

Also, I'm surprised recently by the number of people who dont consider the PS3 faster at all than the Xbox 360. In fact, many people I know have heard about this "unified thingy" in the Xbox 360 and its kinda caught up as a catch phrase at the local EB, of course that place is a hell whole and makes me sick because of its ignorance, but oh well. Just thought I'd throw that out there.

 

[rabidrabbit]

What "unified thing"?? You mean cross-platform development?

 

[Skrying]

What "unified thing"?? You mean cross-platform development?

Xenos.

 

[rabidrabbit]

Ah, the shaders (or the memory?)
I'm surprised if the average joe has any glue what the shaders are and what they do, or even that he cares much.

It's like xb was marketed with "unified" shaders and PS3 with "dedicated" shaders.
Neither tell the aj a lot, so he makes his own image which one is better just by which has a more positive ring to him; "unified" or "dedicated".
I have a hard time guessing which word has a more positive vibe to it

 

[London Geezer]

The average joe knows nothing about shaders and polygons, but they know when a surface looks realistic, and when a model looks "blocky". They might also know nothing about framerate, but they know when a game is smooth and fast, and when it isn't.

In the end, all that means nothing when it comes to actually buying a product. The main difference between geeks and joe's is that the joe's don't care how realistic the surfaces are or how smooth the models are. They just buy what they want. And usually that's based on heavy marketing, nostalgia, games they played already years ago, or licensing of big big franchises. For example, we all know that the DragonBall games on PS2 sold many times more than Virtua Fighter 4 (and Evo) or Soul Calibur.

 

[.Melchiah.]

Wii:
against:
- less mature titles?

XB360:
against:
- it's from M$

PS3:
against:
- it's from Sony

For the Average Joe Sony is still synonymous with cool and quality. Those who have something against Sony are usually the console ******s lurking in the internet forums.

I might be wrong, but I think it's exactly the opposite with Microsoft.

And you might say many people are against Nintendo and their childlike image. The majority of gamers don't want anything that has anything to do with Mario, they want games with mature themes.


Still, I think I've never heard or seen Average Joes being enthusiastically against a company.

 

[Gollum]

I've edited your list a little:

for Wii:
- cool new controller
- cheap
- backwards compatibility and dirt cheap older games
- cheaper new games
- many cool exclusive titles
- promising new original gameplay ideas thanks to the controller
- its the new Nintendo

against:
- no HD
- probably weak 3rd party support
- will miss out on several popular franchises
- its the new Nintendo
- less powerful than the competition
- less mature titles?

for XB360:
- muscle
- great online stuff
- a few cool exclusive titles
- it's available
- backwards compatibility
- HD
- the first next-gen Pro Evolution Soccer
- HDDVD

against:
- expensive
- it's from M$
- not enough great exclusive games as of yet
- more expensive games
- HDDVD not inclusive in the basic version
- its not the new Playstation

for PS3:
- even more muscle
- many cool exclusive games for sure
- Blu-Ray
- backwards compatibility
- its the new Playstation
- HD
- some sort of net browser?
- an OS/API which will allow third party software? ("it's a computer", after all )

against:
- even more expensive
- it's from Sony
- not many great games in the beginning (though it's a given that there will be many soon, but we don't know for sure)
- BluRay might be a no-go
- more expensive games

 

[.Melchiah.]

PS3:
against:
- more expensive games

I doubt they'd be any more expensive than Xbox2 games, and I haven't seen any kind of news or announcement that PS3 games would cost more.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

The market is driven by casual gamers. These casual gamers care about what I would call "the value proposition". It's difficult to describe what that is, but I would say that the following add value in the mind of the consumer:

1. Number of games
2. Number of AAA exclusive franchises (FF, DQ, MGS, GT, Halo, GoW, Forza, Mario, Zelda)
3. Genre coverage (ie. PS3 lacks proven quality FPS, X360 lacks proven quality JRPG)
4. Unique gameplay (Wii controller, PS3 controller)
5. Media features (Blu-Ray, Media Xtender)
6. Non-exclusive franchise coverage (Madden, GTA, Fifa, Splinter Cell)
7. Lower price-point
8. Ownership by fellow gamers (High userbase)
9. Retailer/Rental support (Best Buy, Blockbuster)
10. Online features (Xbox Live, PS3 Online, Wii Online)
11. Good value storage options (Hard Drive, Memory Cards etc...)

I might have missed something, so please pipe in if I have. I'm not going to use this particular post to lay out what I think are the more important ones or which of the three major players has a better value proposition, but I think it would be useful to agree on a starting point for discussion and then we can call chime in with our opinions.

I should add: How well the value proposition is conveyed to the consumer is also extremely important. In other words: Marketing, branding etc...

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I'm with LB on this one. Technical mumbo-jumbo is mostly irrelevant. The key factor is 'social conscience penetration'. A good example is books. Your average Joe reader does go into a shop to buy a new book on a whim, but buys books based on recommendations and what their friends are reading. If they read a book as part of series they like, they end up buying into the rest of that series. As a perfect example of a friend of mine (we were discussing this a while back) he was given LOTR for his birthday I think. When he liked it, his dad recommended the Sword of Shanara series. Liking that series, he goes out and buys all the new Terry Brooks novels. There could be dozens of other books he'd like, maybe even moreso, but he's not interest to go out and explore. He knows what he likes and he'll stick with it. He then shares those books with his friends, and those that like them also buy into the series and the author. So at the end of the day, you could write the best book ever, and go totally overlooked because the forces driving people to choose books don't include full research into what's available. And conversly, you could write a piece of poorly written tripe but if you make it controversial, it makes a name for itself and that promotes sales. It's that principle that makes designer watches more desirable than cheapo Sekonda's despite keeping worse time.

Average Joe wants the console experience that is recommended them. At the forefront you will have geeks trying to sell a system to their freinds, but on the whole it's all to do with marketting. The console manufacturers develop a strategy to try and win over the initial appeal of the geeks so that they will evanglise the masses, and that's where we get spec hype and glorification. But at the end of the day, features and abilities may prove totally worthless, and the masses take a turn no-one expected. That's often the way. You have companies investing lots on creating fads and crazes to no success, and at the same time spontaneous popularity of things no-one expected. For Joe Public, way above all else, the thing that'll influence their console purchasing decisions is which way the rest of the flock is going.

 

[.Melchiah.]

8. Ownership by fellow gamers (High userbase)

I also think if a casual gamer has friends who have a certain console, it's more likely
(s)he'll also get the same console they have.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

That's what I meant.

 

[.Melchiah.]

That's what I meant.

Sorry, being a bit slow today.

 

[[maven]]

On a much more basic level (and once you have enough expendable income - but I am talking about the last generation of consoles which at that point could be had for €150-200), it can come down to single game.
And as we're talking "average joe"'s, they won't have read about a particular game or played it on a demo pod (which is a sure way to ruin nearly every game experience); it will most likely be either word of mouth (which usually is useful in chosing on game above another, but not enough to buy a console on) or simply having fun playing a particular game at a friend's house.
Case in point, a friend of mine played Burnout 3 on my Xbox some time back and enjoyed it so much he bought an Xbox with just that game (and I don't think he's bought any others and has since sold the console again after finishing Burnout).