LGC 2014: 7 things we discovered from EGX 2014

Gamer Network boss Rupert Loman took to London Games Conference to reveal some insight into this year’s EGX consumer show.

In a fascinating talk, he revealed the data from a survey of 3,300 Eurogamer Expo attendees on what hardware they want, what they’re excited by and what will drive their decision to buy a PS4 and Xbox One.

Here are 7 things Loman revealed on stage:

1. Virtual Reality could be huge (at least with men). 41.1 per cent of EGX owners said they wanted an Oculus Rift. That’s more than double Project Morpheus, but that device was not playable at the event. However, the vast majority of interest came from male attendees, women were less interested.

2. 39 per cent of EGX visitors said PS4 was the piece of hardware that gamers planned to buy in the next 12 months, versus 24.1 per cent for Xbox One and 16.1 per cent for Wii U.

3. What are the most important factors prompting gamers to pick between a PS4 or Xbox One? Well No.1 was price, with a close runner-up being exclusive games. The third most important thing is owning the same consoles as friends (which was the fifth most important reason last year.

4. The DRM debate is in decline. Only 1 in 5 EGX visitors said the issues around DRM policy is an issue for them.

5. The least important factor for choosing between a PS4 and Xbox One was multimedia services and exclusive content for multiplayer games. That’s right, EGX owners said the fact a console gets an exclusive character or a level does not matter to them.

6. EGX owners are pretty good at judging how good a game is. EGX asked gamers how they rated some of the demos, and these ratings ended up closely matching what the eventual Metacritic score was. There are exceptions, of course. Alien Colonial Marines scored highly at EGX when that was shown, and the game was a critical disappointment. It was a 35-point swing.

7. That means the following games will probably do pretty well. Namely: Evolve, Elite: Dangerous, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Super Smash Bros Wii U and Mortal Kombat X.