NPD Asks What Users Want In Next-Gen Games

The NPD Group set out to learn what consumers want in next-gen video game consoles. The answers? Great game content and backward compatibility count more than a great price.

According to the NPD Group, a long-standing consumer research firm, the most important features consumers are looking for in next-generation video game consoles—like the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii—is great game content, followed by backward compatibility with favorite games.

“Price is definitely a factor, but not as much as is content,” said NPD analyst Anita Frazier in a release. “I’ve long been a believer that it isn’t any particular technical capability that will win this next console battle. The story continues to be content.”

NPd’s Next Generation Purchase Intent survey collected responses from some 16,670 online NPD consumer panelists aged 6 to 44—although responses from children under 13 were obtained by surrogate adult respondents—during July 2006. Some 87 percent of respondents said that appealing game titles are the most important feature of next-generation game consoles, while 68 percent cited backward compatibility a their primary concern.

The report found that makes and respondents under age 35 were the most interested in next-generation video game systems, but that Heavy Gamers (who spend the greatest amount of time and money on video games) were most likely to emphasize the importance of content, backward compatibility, wireless controllers, Wi-Fi, and online play.

The study also classified respondents as Infrequent, Secondary, or Prefer Portable Gamers, and all these categories had more than 40 percent of their respondents express interest in purchasing either Sony PlayStation 3 or Nintendo Wii. Intriguingly, Heavy Gamers were more interested in the Wii than the PS3, with interest levels of 79 percent and 70 percent, respectively—however, those interested in purchasing only one system, 62 percent said they were only interested in the PS3.