@ Kasz216

According to a Nielsen study 45.7 million households had consoles in them in the last quarter of 2006 (serving about 93.8 million people). They included any type of console connected to a TV set, so that could be a Coleco Vision, Sega Dreamcast, Wii, PS1, PS3, Snes, etc.

PS2 hardware shipment for the whole of Norh America by 2006: 46.53 million

Let's say about 35-40 million of these were connected to a TV set in the US (playing pirates or original games, second hand, repaired, brand new, etc) in households. That does seem to suggest a high percentage of dual console setups amongst households which have consoles other than the PS2.

Assuming this study and figures are roughly representative, ~40 million PS2s + ~27 million XBs/GCs (relative a very strong market for the XBox compared to worldwide) = ~67 million (~144%), so this seems to suggest it could well be a good majority of US households which had a PS2 next to a XBox and/or GameCube. (Note the US console penetration figure could be a lot lower if Nielsen would have excluded older gaming systems like the NES, Snes, PS1, DC, etc, IMO it would have been interesting if they would have broke up their figures by used platform as well)

@ Bothesatva

A friend from Denmark considers himself a Playstation gamer and will buy a PS3 eventually when he got the money to buy a HDTV as well (for the maximum experience, he already has a kickass audio setup) and more budget priced games are available for the platform.

I think it's actually more likely the bulk of the XBox and Nintendo faithful already bought a 360 or Wii (the Wii of course attracting many new gamers). With regard to the PS3 there are too many additional factors to come to this conclusion. For example GameCube and XBox support near fully dried up after the 360's and Wii's release, that's not the case for the PS2.

I'd like to agre with MikeB's point about attracting new gamers, a point overlooked on this board. It's the cornerstone of why Nintendo's current sales figures are so mighty. They're not actually competing for market share per se, that's an expensive strategy in a mature and saturated market: Nintendo are the first in recent years to really go for market growth via innovation and new marketing strategies... duh.

I see it as basically impossible to make "brand-loyalty" statements based on sales figures alone, even if you analyse them every which way. Cos of the amount of variables. What you end up with is significant data, sure, but not about brand-loyalty exactly.

I'm certain that a comparative stat of "What percentage of Wii/PS3/360 owners own no other consoles" would illustrate this point.

@ mysticD

Well I didn't for various reasons:

1) Sony would never allow this to happen, selling at such ratios early would pose a financial disaster to Sony.
2) Entry pricing, it's currently not priced (nor specced) as a cheap mainstream games console but rather a high-end multi-purpose entertainment device.
3) PS2 continues to be well supported, better enabling people to wait longer before upgrading. It's a highly profitable console for Sony, currently needed to counter PS3 investments.
4) HDTV penetration is crucial to the PS3's success (and currently to some extend vice versa). To get the most out of the system a HDTV is well recommended.

said: Hmm. There are 8M Wii owners who also owned a Ps2. There are 7.5M X360 owners who also owned a Ps2 There are 4.2M Ps3 owners who also owned a Ps2. There are  22.3M Ps2 owners who haven't upgraded.   Furthermore. There are 3.4M Wii owners who didn't own a Ps2. There are 3.2M X360 owners who didn't own a Ps2. There are ~ 100K Ps3 owners who didn't own a Ps2    In addition. There are ~ 25M XB-GCN owners in the US. A maximum of 1/3 of the XB-GCN owners have bought a new console. More Ps2 owners have upgraded than XB/GCN owners.   Continuing. Less GC owners, in percentage, are likely to have upgraded to Wii, than Ps2 owners. Same goes for X360. The Wii hasn't majorly expanded the market. It's simply taking the Ps2 market, a bit GC, a bit XB, and a bit more.   Without further ado. Ps3 is almost only Ps2 owners. There isn't likely to be any non gamers who bought the Ps3. X360 might have grabbed a bit new users, but probably very little. The market isn't going to expand a lot in the US this gen.

 

 That's amazing!

@ Nutboy

But I think highly inaccurate like mentioned earlier, we could get to some conclusion if we knew the amount of GameCube/XBox fans amongst Wii/360 owners.

49% of PS2 owners would own a Wii if they could find one.

stranne said: 49% of PS2 owners would own a Wii if they could find one.

please.....

OT: Interesting. I wonder what console the rest of the PS2 croud will buy. Probably the Wii, but the respective shares that the 360/PS3 get will be veerrry interesting.

If the marketshare numbers are to be believed, it shows that there does not seem to be a lot of difference caused by PS2 ownership. The slight difference is probably not statistically significant.

In other words, PS2 ownership is NOT a predictor to PS3 ownership.

Mike from Morgantown

 

PS -- I own a PS2 (and an Xbox and GC) and a Wii (so far).

MikeB said: @ Nutboy > A maximum of 1/3 of the XB-GCN owners have bought a new console. > More Ps2 owners have upgraded than XB/GCN owners. That's amazing! But I think highly inaccurate like mentioned earlier, we could get to some conclusion if we knew the amount of GameCube/XBox fans amongst Wii/360 owners.

 

 I agree. But 1/3 is still the maximum.