According to a range of independent studies, more people than ever before are indulging in triple screening: watching television at the same time as using a mobile phone and a laptop or tablet. 41% of people use a laptop or tablet whilst watching television, based on results from a study commissioned by Nielsen in April 2012 and now GAME has revealed that this habit is growing even more common.
According to their research, more than a third like to shop online while watching TV and one fifth play games at the same time. To keep up with this growing demand for engaging content and media, the gaming industry must therefore adapt to the latest technologies and trends – something which can be seen in the development of the PS Vita which can operate as a second screen device or remote for the PS4 console.
What does that tell you?
Firstly, it could mean that our attention spans are getting worse or that the technology we currently use isn’t good enough to captivate our attention for a particularly long time.
Secondly, it tells you that people now have more choice than ever before. You no longer have to settle for one activity, one console or one type of gaming experience. You can do whatever you want, when you want.
The result of that is that gamers in 2014 will be able to afford to be picky. If they’re going to be parting with some of their hard-earned money for a new console, they’re going to want to know that they’re getting the very best there is.
So when the discerning consumer is weighing up which console to get, they’ve got an absolute array of options. Despite that, most experienced gamers will tell you that it all boils down to just one decision: PlayStation or Xbox?
The Xbox may not have been around quite as long as the PlayStation (it emerged roughly at the same time as the PS2) but in a relatively short space of time it has been able to match the established force blow for blow.
Over the last decade or so, splitting the two has become a very tricky task indeed.
The battle really turned it up a notch with the arrival of the PS3 and the Xbox 360, both of which were really groundbreaking pieces of kit. The latter, which was in fact released a year ahead of the former, came with a 500 MHZ ATI Xenos card and a 3.2 GHz tri-core processor, creating games that really pushed the boundaries of modern gaming.
The PS3 on the other had a 3.2 GHz Cell Broadband Engine with 8 cell processors, as well as a 550 MHz NVIDIA/ SCEI RSX, which catapaulted the console ahead of the Xbox in the popularity stakes – although when the Xbox 360 was released 50% of American gamers chose to connect to online games through it than the PS3.
Graphics are still where the fault lines are drawn between these two, and the impending release of the PS4 and the Xbox One in 2014 will spark more frenzied debate about which console holds the visual advantage.
