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Gamerace on 05 December 2007
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@Mr. Pickles - Excellent first thread (post?)

I agree, (as does Square Enix - see other thread) that with the PS3 Sony continues to have an idenity problem. Everyone who's every heard of Xbox knows Halos and has a clear picture of what it's about. Anyone who's heard of Wii knows what it's all about (WiiSports is more of an association than even Mario, but Mario remains an excellent mascot representing what Nintendo is all about).

With PSX Sony clearly defined themselves as being for the guys 'too old' for N64. People 'Too cool' for Mario and Sonic. And they grabbed up the 15-25 market from their competitors. Crash was the mascot here and he was similar to Sonic in that he was cast as 'more cool, more badass' than the others.

PS2 continued that and they successfully labeled the GC as the 'kiddy system'. Being purple didn't help Nintendo either. This allowed them to (pretty-much)own all non-kiddie software. Then came MS who did the same to Sony as they did to Nintendo. MS cast themselves as the 'core' elite gamer system, for people 'too cool' for Sony.

With PS3 Sony seemed to forget what had worked for them before and focused on MS and seemingly attempting to win that market back. Apperantly they totally disregarded Nintendo and just assumed all other demographics would just stick with them.

The PS3 was too powerful and too pricey for the mainstream, so they correctly targeted the 'core' gamers with games in the first year aimed at them. Again, it's like they just assumed everyone else would keep buying PS2's until the PS3 dropped in price. But this sent a contradiction image to the masses. Where the PS2 was for 'everyone' clearly the PS3 was not. This pissed off a lot of PS2 owners who felt betrayed in a way, that they no longer seemed to matter to Sony. Too make it worse they alternatively marketed the PS3 as a multi-media device and as a game system adding to the idenity crisis. This provided Nintendo a golden oppurtunity to steal the masses. They executed this better than almost anyone could have guessed with the Wii.

While the Playstation brand is great, it's now muddled. They could sure use a new mascot that CLEARLY defines what market they are going for (even if it's 'everyone') and what they stand for. Branding is extremely powerful, and in the English speaking world, currently, Playstation is the weakest brand.