By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Seece on 07 December 2011
Edit Thread
Reasonable said:
Seece said:
Reasonable said:
KillerMan said:
pezus said:
Damn it, why does Wii get a much bigger holiday boost than PS3 all the time. Disappointing Zelda numbers, 300-400k LT in Japan? I see it doing 3-4m WW, not much more than that honestly.


Because it actually has content for the main buying demographic during chirstmas sales. Parents buying games for their children. Especially in Japan Sony's efforts to capture casual market has been beyond horrible. I still can't comprehend why SCEJ has not released Singstar game in Japan...You know the country that absolutely loves karaoke?

TBH this gen Sony have got so hung up fighting MS for mature audience they've made a mess of it globally in terms of appealing to families and more casual buyers.  One of the reasons they have struggled and Wii did so well vs gamecube despite previous market penetration.

In US this year they finally had some decent bundles with R&C and LBP2 and the like (which seem to have sold very well comparatively) but overall I think they've not performed well in this area and their holiday boosts and laklusture success in a demographic the PS2 hoovered up seem to confirm this.

R&C and LBP2 are not casual friendly, and we have no idea who they sold to so you can't say they were successful in selling to casuals. I saw an article about Sony starting to focus on casuals but tbh, they have a major struggle. It took something as big as Kinect for the 360 to appeal to casuals. Unless Sony have something of that calibur coming out, then they're not going to get very far.

As a parent I'd have to disagree.  R&C and LBP2 are the games my kids want to play and the kinds of game they want to sit and play with you their parent.  They are appealing and easy to play and get into and the whole "vibe" of the titles is fun.  Look at previous R&C adverts to see the ages targeted - kids all the way.  Do I know who they sold to?  No, but based on the games previous marketing/appeal I can make a pretty informed estimate - and it was as a gift for families for the most part I'm fairly sure.  The whole marketing/bundle design was also clearly geared towards that demographic.  I doubt many single young adult males rushed out to by it, let's put it that way.

I think there's a pretty big topic here as I believe Sony lost a huge swatch of demographic dominance from PS2, and most of it wasn't actually taken by MS - who were instead steadily building on the roots of Xbox and growing their aquizition of a formerly PC centric demographic in US, UK and certain other territories - but by the Wii/Nintendo.

OF course you can't fault the Wii's marketing and how Wii Sports and motion controls caught the global zeitgeist initially, but Sony also made it very, very easy for Nintendo by failing pretty massively to appeal to certain demographics for a very long time.  PArticularly in the first years of PS3 everything seemed to be a mature title trying to compete with MS/360 and every core developer for Sony seemed to be producing a risky, gritty new IP rather than continuing existing popular franchises.

Focus of marketing/vision for Nintendo and MS were both way superior to Sony for years and boy did Sony pay for it IMHO.  Not that they didn't deserve it.

I remember when PS3 launched and my kids were like "yay, more Jak and Daxter, more Sly, more R&C, more party games" and then it dawned there was nothing suitable for them for ages.  One of the reasons why I, like millions, bought a Wii instead of a PS3 (360 being off the table as totally redundant for a family purchase at the time) and only considered a PS3/360 at a much later stage when the kids got older.

My neice and nephew liked Viva Pinata and the demo of Banjo, that was about the extent of Microsofts first stab at the casual market (and about sums up what Sony has in mind) and look how that did, it failed. You can't say Ratchet and LBp are gonna draw in casuals when they have cheaper and incredibly way more casual friendly alternatives like Kinect and the Wii.

Everything from the marketing, to the PS3 itself, to the competition and the games, none of it is casual friendly.