As we reported earlier this week, a poll by the NPD Group has shown some worrying results; that more gamers than we’d like to admit really aren’t aware of all their consoles capabilities. It’s even scary to say; only 40 per cent of PS3 owners polled were aware that the machine had a Blu-ray player, but what doesn’t make any sense is the results also said that half of them had watched a Blu-ray movie on theirs. Erm, what on Earth were they thinking they were watching?!

But it doesn’t end there; the poll also declared that only 50 per cent of PS3 owners were aware of the hardware’s HD graphical capabilities.

So taking these figures into consideration, what the hell is going wrong, and whose fault is it?

It would seem, that sadly, many PS3 owners have no idea of what their machine is capable of, and no wonder Sony is getting a hitting from the general press and consumers. Too many people believe that they’re simply buying an overpriced console and not the multimedia heaven it truly is. But why? Could it possibly be bad marketing? I mean, I personally thought that Sony’s European PS3 launch campaign was a bit limp at best, and ‘This is Living’ could have possibly been a good catchphrase, but only if they’d shown that the PS3 offered so much. Those adverts never highlighted the fact that the graphics are in jaw dropping HD, that it also doubles as a Blu-ray DVD player – in fact one of the cheapest Blu-ray players available, that you can enjoy amazing online and offline gaming experiences, use it as a music player, a storage device, a place to show off your latest photos… need I go on?

So, do we blame Sony? Is this lack of knowledge their fault? Perhaps, but maybe consumers just weren’t listening hard enough, and well, not reading the manual. Maybe gamers are just getting thicker; too busy hack n slashing their way through a fantastical game world to read like in the good old days. Unlikely we say, but we bet Jack Thompson would love that one.

But maybe, just maybe, it’s something else. Maybe we’re just focused on the gaming experience. Too busy waiting for the big game announcements, seeing the latest trailers, downloading the demos and playing the impressive games that we get on this generation of consoles. Perhaps they’re just too good that the PS3s other features are overlooked.

It’s sad that these figures exist, and I for one am always highlighting the PS3’s other features, but the only positive way to think of them is that these PS3 owners are too in awe of the games to notice anything else. But what do you think? Are gamers getting ever more stupid? Did Sony market the PS3 all wrong? Is there someone else to blame that we have overlooked? Give us your comments, and let us know what you know and think of the PS3s features…

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