Pre-E3: Study Claims Purchase Intent For PlayStation Move, Natal Below 10 Percent

Sony's PlayStation Move and Xbox 360's Project Natal motion control solutions have been garnering a lot of the spotlight from core gamers and the press, but a new study reflects currently low purchase intent for the new devices. Research firm OTX's U.S. tracking study GamePlan Insights polled a group of 2,000 gamers between May 23 and June 5, 2010, and found that 8 percent of the Xbox 360 market intends to buy Natal, and 6 percent of the PlayStation 3 market intends to purchase Move. Of the people that are already planning on buying Natal and Move, 25 percent plan to preorder the controllers. The low purchase intent figures reflect the current lack of information about compatible games for the devices. Microsoft and Sony are expected to reveal more motion-compatible games at next week's E3 event in L.A., where the controllers will be a central attraction, after which purchase intent may rise. Neither piece of hardware has officially launched (Natal still goes by its codename), and Microsoft in particular plans on backing the controller's release with a substantial marketing push. The GamePlan Insights study also said that 15 percent of the Xbox 360 market is aware of Natal, while the same percentage of the PS3 market is aware of the Move. The study showed that Natal intenders have an average age of 25, versus 28 for the Move. Also, 30 percent of Move intenders are female, compared to 20 percent for Natal. Natal intenders are also closely aligned with core Xbox 360 game tastes, with four out of five saying they like to play shooting games. "While we are still months away from launch, the current data suggests that Natal gamers are definitely Xbox 360 purists, while Move gamers have a stronger interest in other platforms," OTX said. Move intenders' tastes are more varied across genres like action, role-playing and shooters, which rank closely together as the top three preferred genres, OTX said. The study revealed the top five games that Natal and Move intenders are currently interested in, exhibiting the gaming tastes of these early adopters: Titles with strongest overlap among Natal intenders: 1. Gears of War 3 – X360 (47%) 2. Fable III – X360 (42%) 3. Call of Duty: Black Ops – X360 (38%) 4. Halo: Reach – X360 (34%) 5. Dead Space 2 – X360 (26%) Titles with strongest overlap among Move Intenders: 1. LittleBigPlanet 2 – PS3 (42%) 2. Gran Turismo 5 – PS3 (32%) 3. SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs – PS3 (30%) 4. The Legend of Zelda 2 – Wii (26%) 5. Super Mario Galaxy 2 – Wii (21%) View graph of Move intenders' top preferred genres View graph of Natal intenders' top preferred genres