Using the recent platform exclusive God of War III (GOW III) release as a lens, Nielsen explored the motivating factors for purchasing a Playstation 3. GOW III was greeted with extensive media coverage, midnight launch parties at video game retailers and excellent critical reviews. Certainly Sony and the gaming industry at large expect that GOW III will achieve blockbuster sales figures and stoke interest in the PS3. But how important are specific games titles, even those that are destined to be platinum sellers, in motivating potential hardware buyers considering the many entertainment capabilities of present-gen consoles?

Over a three week period prior to, during and after GOW III was released, Nielsen interviewed more than 700 active gamers ages 7-54 who do not currently own a PS3 but are definitely or probably interested in acquiring the system in the next six months to better understand the factors behind their purchase intent.

Among those gamers motivated to acquire a PS3 because they are looking forward to buying a specific game, GOW III was the clear winner. However, overall results indicate that specific game titles rank as the least frequently cited reason for being interested in purchasing a PS3.

When asked to rank the five most important reasons (out of 10 possible, with a rank of 1 indicating the most important reason) for being interested in buying a PS3, gamers included “I am looking forward to buying a specific game” 12% of the time, lagging behind all the other potential motivators by a substantial margin.

While Blu-ray capability and the PS3 price reduction are included most often overall, there is evidence that suggests that software and gaming strongly motivate these potential buyers, with the library of games cited by 62%. In addition, the desire to connect and play games with friends who already own a PS3 and the ability to play multiplayer games on the PlayStation Network that speak to the appeal of PS3 as a gaming platform are also included by many gamers, indicating that these respondents are motivated to purchase the system in part for its gaming capabilities. A specific game as the motivator is included by only one in every eight gamers (12%) intending to buy the system

Despite the fact that buying a specific game does not rank high on the list of reasons for acquiring a PS3, GOW III was the most popular game among those who mentioned that a particular title is a Top 5 motivator of their console purchase. Across a list of 20 PS3 titles including Heavy Rain, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Little Big Planet and Gran Turismo 5, one-third (33%) of gamers indicate GOW III as their first choice. With no other game garnering more than 13% of the first choice vote (Final Fantasy XIII comes in as a distant runner-up) and most titles falling at 3% or below, the strong appeal of GOW III is readily apparent.

Not to be overlooked is that nearly half (49%) cited interest in the console for its multimedia capabilities. This is especially interesting because the tagline for Sony’s recent marketing campaign, “It only does everything,” touts the entertainment versatility of the PS3 even as it features specific high-profile games, including GOW III, in select ads. Considering the data, it appears as though this marketing strategy complements consumer sentiment. While many potential PS3 buyers will see GOW III as an important asset, more often the game will be considered one of many reasons to acquire the console rather than the sole motivator.

Cutting The Cord

While an overwhelming majority, 88%, of U.S. households have a wireless phone in 2009, most still maintain a traditional landline at home. However, this is changing. In the second quarter of 2009, over one in five households reported they are wireless cellular only—an increase of 16% from the past year. This increase comes from the two-thirds of households who have dropped their landlines as well as from young adults that started new households with just a wireless phone service.

Expanded Mobile Media

This year all media player products in the market have seen growth. Given an increase in availability, product options and cost reductions, these types of products have become more mainstream. With one-third of households owning gaming devices and digital video recorders, they are becoming well established products that continue to exhibit healthy year-over-year growth rates. Growth of portable MP3 music players without video capabilities leveled off in 2009 at 25%. Adoption of other alternative media player products is still in the early stages, although all have exhibited growth this year. Most notable are devices that offer video capabilities.

Download more highlights from Nielsen’s 2009 Convergence Audit.

“Primarily, we believe mainstream gamers are playing more of the broadly appealing games (i.e Wii Fit, Guitar Hero and Rock Band) pushing their hours of gameplay up,” said Michael Flamberg, director of client consulting, Nielsen Games. “The social aspects of these games have engaged them. We don’t believe hardcore gamers are driving up the usage averages we’ve observed. Second, gamers may be looking to stretch their entertainment dollar further through playing games they own more. The importance of value for them is evident in the findings on used game purchase.”

In terms of why new game sales have been soft, Nielsen offers three contributing factors that explain this:

1. Used game purchasing is at all-time highs in 2009, looking back since 2006. Claims about how many used games are being purchased in absolute terms and as a share of the total (used vs. new) have increased substantially (see graph). This is corroborated by GameStop’s record-breaking first quarter financial results, on the strength of used game sales. Best Buy recently announced it was getting into the used game market as well and Wal-Mart is testing this out.
2. There has been an uptick in claimed subscriptions to video game rental services by mail, to all-time highs since 2006 (14% of gamers in May). This is a plausible substitute for new game purchasing.
3. New game sales have been soft compared to last year in part because of unfavorable title comparisons in terms of how popular the releases have been this spring vs. last spring. This is a hit driven business and there haven’t been as many hits. Awareness of new titles, when prompted with their names, has dipped in 2009 to lows not seen since 2007.

For more, download The Value Gamer: Play and Purchase Behavior in a Recession and read the coverage in the Los Angeles Times.

A gamer is defined as claiming to have purchased a title in the past 6 months and played for at least 1 hour per week on any of the current consoles or the PC.

In addition to gaming consoles such as PlayStation and Xbox, PC gaming is alive and well, while new platforms like mobile phones offer new possibilities for game developers.  More than ever before, video games encompass a broad spectrum of genres, platforms and price.

Other key findings from Nielsen’s report include:

• PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 attract the more engaged users, who are less likely to be watching prime time TV that users of other consoles.

• PlayStation 2 still leads all other consoles in total minutes of usage, but continues to have the highest downward trend.  Data suggests that the PS2 will lose the top usage spot within the next few months.

• Females 25 years and older make up the largest block of PC game players, accounting for 46.2 percent of all players and 54.6 percent of all game play minutes in December 2008.

• The most played games on the PC are card games from Microsoft, with Solitaire being the most played game in December 2008 with over 17 million players.

“Gaming, once the domain of kids and a small group of core fans, is now more mainstream than ever.  As the number of platforms continues to expand, we would expect that more people will be drawn to the entertainment video games can offer.  Along with this, the evolution of gaming consoles into multimedia devices has changed consumption habits of traditional media such as TV, movie and Internet content,” said Bradley Raczka, Marketing Manager for Nielsen Games.

View the complete State of the Video Gamer report here.

Sony’s Playstation 2 was the top game console of 2008, claiming 31.7% of all measured console minutes, according to Nielsen.  The Xbox 360 and Wii ranked second and third, respectively, with 17.2% and 13.4% of all usage minutes between January and October of this year.

Blizzard Entertainment’s “World of Warcraft” was the most popular PC game title of the year, drawing an average of 0.723% of all PC gamers per minute between January and October 2008.

Among mobile gamers, “Tetris” was the top game for Q3 2008, in terms of share of revenue. 

Top 10 PC Game Titles: U.S.

Top 10 Mobile Games By Revenue Share: U.S. – Q3 2008

Top Video Game Consoles By Usage

View the press release.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in Forbes.

Relive the greatest hits of 2008 — stay tuned on Nielsen Wire for more Tops In 2008 coverage.

Look ahead to the new year with Nielsen Wire’s 2009 Industry Outlook series.