Consolation Prize

I saw an interesting statistic the other day over at Gamasutra in an article by Matt Matthews regarding the estimated “attachment” rate for each console after 23 months on the market; or in layman’s terms: How many games on average are owned by a person for each console.

The article basically shows the ratios for each console, broken down by 1st and 3rd party titles, but for simplicity’s sake and for use within this post I’ve just totalled them as:

• Sony PS3 - 5.3
• Nintendo Wii - 5.5
• Microsoft Xbox 360 - 6.6

What I thought would be interesting would be to put the attachment rate into a personal context and analyse the statistics for retail games in my possession as of this moment in time. As regular readers will know I tend to have a bias towards the Xbox 360, favouring the Microsoft banshee over the PS3 and the Wii, but to be honest I was shocked at just how many games I had accumulated for the Redmond beast over the last few years. It’s amazing how quick you can forget what games you own when they just get stuffed into a cupboard once complete.

Looking at the total number of games by platform one thing is obvious; I should really own shares in Microsoft. But seriously, the bias is visually quite evident and really highlights what little use I’m getting out of the PS3 and Wii compared to the Xbox 360. It also raises the question of whether it’s actually necessary to own each platform, and would I miss the Wii and PS3 if they weren’t already in my possession?

Given the total number of games categorised by each games predominant type, it’s safe to say that the genres Racing and First Person Shooter rule the roost, and if you also take into account Third Person Shooter and Tactical Shooter then overall Shooters are the most commonly played game type.

Taking a closer look at Xbox 360 titles in particular the same kind of pattern is evident. I had intended to also perform a similar exercise for the PS3 and Wii, but to be fair I don’t think I own enough titles for these respective platforms in order to construct a decent representation.

And finally, breaking the total number games down by exclusivity for each platform (discounting the PC in this analysis) we can see that the Xbox 360 accounts for all but one multi-format title, leaving the the PS3 and Wii purely to pick up any exclusive content of interest.

So there you have it, my preferences laid bare. And although this little exercise could be construed as being quite anal I’ve found it quite enlightening, and possibly therapeutic, to actually take the time to analyse my current generation game collection.

So do these statistics represent a common template for an Xbox 360 owner? Given the titles that have been released for the platform to date then quite possibly, but feel free to let me know the genres that account for majority of your gaming collection.

Referenced article:
PS3, Xbox 360, Wii First/Third Party Game Attach Rate Exposed