The June edition of Harris Buzz is now available - you can download the
full free report here.
This latest edition allows us to compare the buzz for the Xbox One announcement/reveal with that
measured for the PlayStation 4 event earlier in February.
As ever, our Harris Buzz reports look at the awareness, discussion level and excitement buzz for the latest news and releases in entertainment and technology.
As such it gives us the earliest preview of which of the two titans are most likely to succeed in the battle for the next generation. I'll leave Wii U aside as
my earlier post suggests it is rather unlikely to be a contender.
So what's the story? How do Xbox One and PlayStation 4 compare for buzz?
Things couldn't be closer. Well they could, but statistically speaking a difference of 1% here or there is completely insignificant.
The two announcements are, in other words, completely tied for the level of Buzz created.
Now bear in mind this research was conducted directly after each console's announcement. So the data for PlayStation 4 comes from our February/March edition of Buzz. But this is the fairest comparison as we're looking here at the Buzz created directly after announcement.
Another thing to bear in mind is this fieldwork was conducted prior to E3, where even more details of the games were revealed (and we actually saw the PS4 console for the first time). We'll be measuring the E3 news in our next edition of Buzz, which will be available in July.
We'll continue to monitor the next gen battle. Will the PS4's lower price be a determining factor in which will be crowned king of the next gen? What about the "always on" connection for Xbox One and the restrictions for used games. What about using a Kinect to control a home media centre? Questions, questions.
As things stand, as far as the public is concerned, the battle is too close to call.
