Xbox 360 primarily used for gaming, PS3 used mostly for media
With a rapidly growing number of non-gaming apps on Xbox Live, Microsoft has cultivated an image that it is the entertainment console of choice. However, a new report from Nielsen shows that PlayStation gamers are more likely to stream media than their Xbox counterparts.
With a rapidly growing number of non-gaming apps on Xbox Live, Microsoft has cultivated an image that it is the entertainment console of choice. However, a new report from Nielsen shows that PlayStation gamers are more likely to stream media than their Xbox counterparts.
In fact, PS3 owners are more likely to watch movies or use the internet than actually play games on their console. Game playing only makes up 46% of the time spent on Sony's box, while the remaining 54% is spent watching movies, listening to music, and more.
In comparison, Xbox 360 owners spend two-thirds of their time gaming on their console, split evenly between online and offline gaming.
Nielsen's report doesn't offer any reason for the discrepancy. One explanation could be the requirement of a paid Xbox Live Gold subscription to access many of the media features offered on Xbox 360. PS3, on the other hand, has no additional paywall to access streaming services like Netflix and YouTube.
Still, these figures are surprising given Sony and Microsoft's positioning of their next-gen consoles. PS4 is being targeted heavily at core gamers, while Microsoft has been keen on making its next Xbox less of a games machine, and more of a general entertainment device.
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replyAndrew Yoon posted a new article, Xbox 360 primarily used for gaming, PS3 used mostly for media.
With a rapidly growing number of non-gaming apps on Xbox Live, Microsoft has cultivated an image that it is the entertainment console of choice. However, a new report from Nielsen shows that PlayStation gamers are more likely to stream media than their Xbox counterparts.-
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Bing!
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same here.
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Yep, here too, about 15x more media than gamea
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Whoever did the survey doesn't seem to have actually used either device - if they had, they'd know why the PS3 is used more for streaming (though I'm surprised that game-playing isn't as solid on the device since it has better hardware). The PS3 will play nearly ANY media while the crappy X-box barely plays anything. I had nothing but hassles trying to get the 360 to play my media compared to the PS3, which ran everything. That's part of the reason I prefer to use it for big-time media streaming.
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The PS3's media support is only slightly better than the 360. It supports more older codecs, and has slightly better image quality when viewing divx or xvid content. This was what made me switch from watching media on the 360 to watching it on the PS3, but let's not pretend that either console has kept up with the times in terms of media support. Neither one will natively play MKV files. DRM support (via Cinavia) has also crept into the PS3's firmware, making it difficult to watch certain things as well.
Having said all that, my usage reflects the article. I game on my 360, and watch media on the PS3. Neither one is a good substitute for an HTPC though.
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The problem of this comes with the audience, not the console.
Most gamers who own a 360 tend to move from one game to the next almost every month, done with Saints Row, get Borderlands, done with Borderlands, get Halo, done with that, CodBlops, etc.
PS3 gamers tend to do this as well but with less frequency, most PS3 gamers I know are actually going back to play games that they missed so there's less pressure to finish this game and move on to the next.
The only thing that's hardware based that I can see contributing to this is the fact that when it comes to video PS3 has the 360 beat by a huge margin, watching a movie on the 360 (whether it's a download, a stream or a DVD) is pretty much the same bare-bones experience today than it was almost 7 years ago.
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Sony pretty much caused this to happen by designing and promoting the PS3 as the the machine that "only does everything". It has a Blu-Ray player. It not only streams media as a DLNA server, but it also allows you to STORE photos, music and media on the device itself. The PS3 web browser is terrible, but up until recently there was no 360 alternative and it is still the only console web browser that allows users to download actual files to the hard drive via the browser.
The Xbox 360 by comparison severely limits what users can do with it, many of its services are locked behind a Gold membership pay wall and the interface has become increasingly cluttered and poor in recent years, so it's no wonder that more PS3 owners do the majority of their media streaming and/or playback on the PS3. -
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Misleading title. /video games "journalism"
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