UK Survey Shows PlayStation 3 Winning Mindshare War

The results of a survey performed by XTN Data, a UK-based research consultancy firm, show that the PlayStation 3 is currently winning the console war, at least in terms of UK gamer mindshare. The survey spoke to 1,000 game buyers, 32% of which said they were likely to buy a PlayStation 3 when it's released, though the console currently has no UK release date. By comparison, only 27% of the respondents, whose average age and gender was not revealed by XTN Data, said they were intending to buy Microsoft's Xbox 360, which will be released in the UK on December 2. "This comes despite huge efforts by Microsoft to launch in time for the vital Christmas period and before Sony's 2006 launch," said XTN Data founder Greig Harper. The poll apparently did not question gamers on whether or not they were likely to buy Nintendo's next-generation Revolution system. Other findings of the research into the games industry were that 11% of gamers use file-sharing software to illegally download games, with popular downloads being Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Rome: Total War, and The Sims 2. PC games were more popular downloads due to the relative ease of play compared to pirated console titles, but the home system games were also a common target.