Awareness of Natal and Move very low

By Tom Bramwell Published 13 June, 2010

According to Nielsen and OTX GamePlan.

Only a small percentage of gamers know about or intend to buy Project Natal or PlayStation Move, according to a pair of studies.

Nielsen Games said this week that in a survey of "over 2400 active gamers", just 21 per cent were aware of Natal and 23 per cent of Move. Of those, 35 per cent were up for buying Natal and 28 percent Move.

The numbers increase to 39 per cent awareness of Natal among 360 gamers and 42 per cent awareness of Move among PS3 gamers, with corresponding increases in purchase intent - to 42 per cent and 41 per cent respectively.

Nielsen also said the majority of gamers polled expect Natal and Move to cost between $25 and $75, although a smaller but still significant percentage expect them to cost north of $100.

Elsewhere, OTX GamePlan ran a separate survey of 2000 consumers, which indicated that only 8 per cent intend to buy Natal and 6 per cent Move.

Sounds like those elephants have got their work cut out.

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About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000. Follow him on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (27) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • Freek #1 2 years ago

    Natal hasn't even been properly unveiled or even named yet. And Move only just did that a few months ago.
    Ofcourse nobody is aware of them, the companies haven't started their add campaigns yet.

    Hell, Natal is only getting it's first proper showing tommorow. Up untill that point MS did not want anybody to know about it.
    Edited by Freek at 13/06/10 @ 13:01

  • bad09 #2 2 years ago

    "Awareness of Natal and Move very low"

    Sadly mine isn't....

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqv1wYCEYh4

  • Weebleboy #3 2 years ago

    Unadvertised products in low awareness shock.

  • brseg #4 2 years ago

    not that surprising, its not really hit mainstream, and it doesnt have a proper name yet. Anyway, its all about the games. Needs a killer app. People leaping around a room trying to kick virtual beach balls != killer app.

    Ha, some people thought it would cost $25-$75, the marketing guys wont like seeing that.

  • drxym #5 2 years ago

    @Freek, I agree that neither tech has been marketed yet, however both have been known about for quite some time and there have been numerous demonstrations on stage and on video.

  • Freek #6 2 years ago

    One proper showing of Move at GDC, and nothing for Natal bare a few tech demos. No real games, no clear showing of what it does exactly yet. That's comming tommorow. When they showed it at E3 last year it was still deep in development.
    MS kept has been keeping a tight led on things. Sony has shown a little, but that's really been towards gaming press and the development community.

    In both cases, by design, there's not been a big marketing push to the mainstream yet to make them aware of what's comming.

  • drxym #7 2 years ago

    Freek, there have been plenty of demos of both techs, enough to get an extremely good idea how they work. You are right that Natal's game roster has not been shown and I will be interested to see it, but there were plenty of live demos to get the jist of what to expect - mainly party / casual / fitness games.
    Edited by drxym at 13/06/10 @ 14:34

  • spudsbuckley #8 2 years ago

    Maybe it's just that no one cares.

  • kendoji #9 2 years ago

    I have both consoles, am well aware of both, and have zero interest in either one.

    The only thing in the world I'm less interested in, is 3d television.

    /is old, grumpy and fearful of change

  • Syrok Verified Community Coordinator, Tarsier Studios #10 2 years ago

    "Freek, there have been plenty of demos of both techs,"

    If you are not frequenting videogame related website you probably haven't seen any of them.

  • rock27gr #11 2 years ago

    Indeed, why would the mainstream, casual if you like, know about these? They where only shown to developers and specialist press afterall.

    What is more worrying, to the platform holders that is, is the notion between those that DO know that it will be cheap to purchase.

  • Cjail #12 2 years ago

    I would like to know what is an " active gamer"?

  • drxym #13 2 years ago

    Syrok, I'm not disagreeing, just correctning the statement that Natal is only having its first "proper showing tomorrow" when it's been widely known about and demonstrated on many occasions. Even the BBC has covered it before now e.g. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/84... I'm sure there will be plenty more coverage tomorrow which will be aimed for as wide an audience as possible.

  • Stuz359 #14 2 years ago

    As several people have pointed out it has only really been covered in the specialist press and on videogame websites, so it is not really surprising that awareness is low.

    It will obviously pick up once the ad campaigns kick into gear and get more coverage in the mainstream press.

  • Miths #15 2 years ago

    I'm looking forward to Move. I imagine the initial games might be underwhelming - or missing :) - but I'm still curious to see what motion and pointing control is like in games (I don't count the Sixaxis thing, I've never tried a Wii, and the last time I used a lightgun in an arcade was probably around 1990).

  • djed #16 2 years ago

    Awareness of Natal and Move very low

    Good, guess it's a couple of more years until skynet then.

  • smallvillefan #17 2 years ago

    Can see no reason why anyone would want either.

    Move? Already have a Wii, don't need another thanks. Especially one that won't have the benefit of Nintendo's phenomenal first party output to make it worthwhile.

    Natal? No thanks, hated eyetoy first time around, and lets face it, as a controller, it offers an extremely narrow amount of variety in the kinds of games it will be able to realistically support.

    Seriously, I'm supposed to accept either of these overhyped monstrosities as "the future"? Fuck off.

  • makeamazing #18 2 years ago

    Move? Already have a Wii, don't need another thanks. Especially one that won't have the benefit of Nintendo's phenomenal first party output to make it worthwhile.

    Well i guess if you dont like Nintendo's first party games, and you want games that look nicer than the Wii and already have a PS3, then it might be worth doing. But your right if you only like Nintendo's game offering then it wont be of interest.

    Natal? No thanks, hated eyetoy first time around, and lets face it, as a controller, it offers an extremely narrow amount of variety in the kinds of games it will be able to realistically support.

    To be fair to Natal (and i am not a big fan)... if there is one market it is likely to do well in and that is in the Casual market, and this is the Wii's biggest domain... so in that case many casual gamers might love it.

  • YoungPayters #19 2 years ago

    well the fact that there is any games announced with it as well doesnt help matters either.

    MS: "we have this fantastic new system that registers movement in 3D"
    customer: "any games announced?"
    MS: "Peter molyneux can talk to a little boy"

    Sony: "We have this lovely controller that mimics motion 1:1"
    Customer: "any games?"
    Sony: "Heavy Rain maybe... and eye toy game"

  • makeamazing #20 2 years ago

    I would say i've seen/heard more of Sony's offering than MS's, but then MS might be holding out for E3... while Sony may have already told everyone about the games they are going to show.

    Sony's offering is a mix of new and old games with new controller support, and i think that is the right way to go. Its to early to say if there offering will be any good, but the fighting and boxing games looked ok (depends how much depth there is). While on the MS side only seen two games (and the third hasnt been stated as being supported or not - i.e tech demo).

    Pretty sure if they dont reveal it this week at E3, then its not going to happen for release (e.g the games that are coming out)... so its basically watch E3 ;)

  • madgerald Verified Studio Head of PR & Marketing, Colossal Games LTD #21 2 years ago

    makeamazing: "To be fair to Natal (and i am not a big fan)... if there is one market it is likely to do well in and that is in the Casual market, and this is the Wii's biggest domain... so in that case many casual gamers might love it."

    The thing is, the casual market is just that... 'casual'.. Gaming takes up probably less than 5% of their free time.

    Wii owning casual gamers are unlikely to pick up another console + natal/move + games when the Wii serves their needs completely. It's something fun for when their friends/family come over.

    Yes, the Xbox 360 and PS3 have nicer graphics, but to a casual gamer that's not an important factor. I know a lot of casual gamers (most of my family inc. parents and siblings) and they only ever want to play on the Wii because its simple and fun. My mum wants to buy my wii off me - she's not interested in Xbox or PS3 as the Wii has everything she needs in 1 box. She'll happily play Wii Sports until the cows come home (or my sisters as they're more commonly known).

    I took my iPad up to my parents this weekend, and I spent most of the time playing Scrabble on it with my mum - she now wants one for Christmas! That is a casual gamer.. My mum is 60 in December.

  • makeamazing #22 2 years ago

    @madgerald - hey i never said it was a good idea for either company to chase that market ;)

    Out of the two, I believe Sony's device to at least be useful for its core users if its support is added to its current games, while i actually think that MS device will need new games only on the whole.

    But my comment was responding to that one guy who says no casual users would be interested in Natal, i disagree with that statement, i am sure there will be some, all dependant on how much press it gets. Just because it is controller less, regardless if its rubbish or not, it feels "new" that Might appeal to other casual users... not saying all wii users are going to jump ship... no because as you say many of the people who may have purchase a wii would have been a different market wanting wii fit.

  • alan_stealth #23 2 years ago

    Reality is I think this won't affect anything.
    The "casual gamer" market, snapped up (most recently) by the Wii, will be the market that these two projects will be looking to steal some of, as (arguably) this is more lucrative.

    I mean, it's going to launch at practically Christmas time.

    At least for the 360, (I have read little of the Sony) I imagine we will see a collection of launch titles, that can be engaged by multiple "viewers", (eg. Wii style games) rather than solely marketed towards already established gamers.
    (eg. sequels like Gears, Halo..just an example)

    Of course there will be some that are "Natal/Wave/Kinecticwhateverthefuck" enabled style games, (Fable III)
    which is not dissimilar to the whole bunch of Live games that have online enabled and just keep a leaderboard, or some crap like that;-
    but effectively most will be games to make the most of the various interactive capabilities, game and storyline will come second.

    I'm sure the months to follow the Microsoft project will be most interesting, as we start to see games emerge that are fully intergrated with it, and are also great games to boot.
    Edited by alan_stealth at 14/06/10 @ 02:42

  • SlackMaster #24 2 years ago

    I'm sure though that the Wii has taken the excitement out of motion control. It's just not that new anymore. Although when you consider the power glove on the nes it was never really new, just more affordable and worked.

  • metallicorphan #25 2 years ago

    "Awareness of Natal and Move very low"


    shouldn't that be "Interest for Natal and Move very low"

  • chukcyQ #26 2 years ago

    These gadgets need proper games before I consider buying them.

  • dk71 #27 2 years ago

    if i wanted to excersise... i would go to a gym.
    i wouldn't be shaking my hands like an idiot in my living room...

    useless technologies