With news like this, you have to wonder just why then game systems are really sold. If you don't know the full capabilities of a system when you buy it, are these more impulse buys than anything? Systems people buy to say they have them like a status symbol? Young kids who don't know anything other than if you put a disc in them they play games? Either way, it's interesting, and also possibly telling about how well consoles are marketed and sold.

From the article:

Microsoft and Sony have both been pushing high-definition visuals this generation, but do people care? So far, the hardcore have been the early adopters of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, while the mass market waits for the right games (i.e. Grand Theft Auto IV) and price drops to make this generation financially viable. Naturally, then, you might assume gamers with machines now are aware of their HD capabilities, right?
Right?

As it turns out, not so much. The NPD Group released results from their "Next Gen Functionality & Usage" report and some of the numbers are surprising.

According to the results, only 40% of PlayStation 3 owners polled were aware the machine had a Blu-ray player and about 50% of that number had popped in a Blu-ray movie during the last 10 times they turned on the machine -- the other half didn't use the feature. The study didn't poll about Xbox 360's HD-DVD add-on, as it's not a standard feature with the Xbox 360 SKU. For reference, about half polled knew about the DVD-playback potential of Xbox 360.

The lack of awareness (or interest) isn't limited to movie watching, either -- and here's where you should start paying attention for an idea on how the mass market will respond in the next few years. Only 30% of Xbox 360 owners were aware of the HD graphics capabilities of the machine, whereas that number rises to 50% with PS3. Considering the inclusion of a cheap Blu-ray player in the PS3, that's not so surprising, but, either way, a startling number of "HD gamers" don't know about -- or don't care about -- HD.

Read the full article over at 1up.com