New PS4 Ad Airs During Monday Night Football

[Adinnieken]

Not sure this was the right commercial for Monday Night Football.

The majority of gamers know about the PS4 already. You might have a few that aren't aware of it, but in general the information is out there about the PS4.

The intention of this ad is to demonstrate how friends can get online and have fun competing with each other. I'm sure people at Sony said "How can we show two people competing against each other online? Don't show them actually playing a game, because that may not get the message across, put them in the game scenario instead.

The question/problem with this advertisement is two-fold.

Is this a feature with the console itself? They don't mention PSN or PS+. Online competition on the PS4 requires a PS+ subscription. I'm pretty sure if I'm playing KillZone or Drive Club against my friend, I'm going to need PS+ in order to do it. Thus the problem, they're not telling the entire story.

The second issue is who are they advertising to? I'm not sure the MNF crowd is entirely who they want to communicate the message to. Generally speaking that crowd is non-gamer, yet nothing in the advertisement really communicates a motivational point to the non-gamer.

It's almost as if Sony is saying "Hey we're also coming out."

If Sony's intention was to target non-gamers, I think it'll fall flat. Like Microsoft's commercial, the Sony commercial seems to be targeting the 20 something affluent gamer. These are not people who games. They're typically not the people who, when deciding to compete with a friend says, "let's pick up a controller and play a game," rather than "let's pick up a basketball and shoot some hoops."

If Sony's intention was to target gamers, they may have struck a positive core with the people who support Sony consoles, but they may have also wasted money in doing so. Gamers already have made their decision to buy. While some are switching, to one console from the other, they're not doing it in droves and that commercial won't convince anyone who already is planning on getting an Xbox One to switch their purchasing choice.

I don't think Sony hit their intended audience with that commercial.