So many people talking about Mario, and Gameboys. :P

I think what Sony are trying to say is that they made gaming half cool and worthwhile.

Nintendo males will never be cool imo. (Just an opinion calm down)

But the 15-30 demographic that existed when Sony came in had been 5-20 demographic in the time of the NES. Bringing linear time into the picture changes the image considerably.

You did say "themes" - I gave you themes, then you start spinning. What technology you're talking about? Regardless I was just messing with you, your argument still fails but for a different reason =)

First, what adults we're talking about? Second, what's end result of this "maturing" process that presumably took place since PS1 era you're implying? Well, let's look at what audiences are playing games nowadays, shall we? X360 userbase are mostly kids under 18, PS3 barely older - mostly college students 18-25. There're no substantial difference between those systems' game libraries, thus mentality, tastes and perception of games is the same for both those groups. This only underlines the whole problem of the industry, that got concentrated on one group of people and the games as much mature as gamers playing them, in other words, not even close.

It's funny to see how gamers have a hard time admitting that adults, at least those who never touched games i.e. majority of them, and actual mature people i.e. people that have kids and responsibilities, just don't give a crap about the games they love regardless of their stories, presentation, themes or whatever gamers found important =)

//BTW how old were you when you got your PS1? An adult, I guess? =)

This basically ends the thread. As well, above I gave numbers for NES vs PS1 penetrations rates in US, which are roughly the same. The market that was hugely expanded (can't say established, 4th gen console war did that) by Sony is Europe. PS brand cannibalized every other form of gaming in that area at the time.

//From personal experienece I can say that PS brand was popular outside of regular US, Europe, Japan regions as well, though I doubt BRIC countries contributed that much to growth, but still. When I was a kid, the system that opened the market and made it way bigger than enthusiast, computer nerds and Spectrum fans world was Dendy, a well-build Famiclone. Before that there were only computer geeks, since Spectrums were never legally imported in USSR, all Soviet ZX Spectrums were literally hand-made, build around Z80 CPU (just like mine, my dad made it for me). Then there was SMD vs. SNES war, SNES failed poorly due to high price points and completely no piracy. SMD systems cost cheaper, SMD hardware clones cost even less, chinese bootleg carts were sold everywhere and cost few times cheaper than awesome-looking, packaged in cardboard SNES carts and the system was "cool" enough, so teens go crazy about it. Then PS1 came, who were playing it? Well, the same used to be a kid, now teenagers =)

If Sony's PR thinks it was illegitimate before, it just shows that they don't know who the parents were.

First of all, it's not spin, it's you oversimplifying my arguments, but I'll take some of the blame for that for not explaining myself properly. Secondly, it's not a "maturing" process as such, but a mixture of different elements that eventually lead to a larger market and more people buying Playstation. I'll try to be a bit more concise:

3 elements that I can identify were responsible: Mature titles, technology and marketing. Alone they don't add up to much, but combined they were a potent mix for Sony and the consumer:

1. Mature titles. Yes, they existed in some form before as we both know in the Nes and SNES days. If you include PC they've always been available although not accepted by mainstream until..

2. The technology advanced to the point where the mainstream took notice. Games were now being played in 3 dimensions and characters started to include acted scenes and emotions (albeit lame, but at the time it seemed amazing). Comparisons started to be made to films and in doing so gained greater knowledge for the mainstream. The technology meant that games...

3. Could be marketed with greater ease. Shove a few of the games' FMV sequences in an advert and everyone was amazed at what new tech could acheive with games, again, being compared to film and TV, again gaining more acceptance with the mainstream audience.

A good example of this is Final Fantasy VI to Final Fantasy VII. Both VI and VII are loved by fans and dealt with some mature and sometimes dark themes, yet if VGChartz is anything to go by, VI sold only 870,000 copies in the US and 2.55M in Japan relative to 3.09 and 3.93 million respectively for VII. The wider audience was more accepting of mature content games for the 3 reasons I stated above in the Playstation gen.

Of course, Sony's success wasn't based solely off this as they did cater to the previous demographics of younger audiences as well with both core and bridging titles like Crash, Spyro, Medieval etc.

@ underlined:

Adults that bought PS1/2:

1. 2 males cousins aged 23 and 25 both bought PS1s, had consoles before
2. One 26 yr old waiter at my dad's resturant. His first console.
3. The head chef from our resturant aged mid-30s. Bought it for his kids first, then played it himself. Played some crap titles mind (Duke Nukem: Time to Kill.. really?!)
4. My 20-something yr old PE techer
5. 30 something yr old English teacher. First console. Used to play PS1 with us at lunchtimes too!
6. One of my friends parents bought a slim PS1 late in the cycle. The family's first console.

Not sure why your getting into current gen as I was explaining how Sony expanded and catered for a larger demographic during PS1 and PS2. Problem for MS and Sony now is that they are both competing for the same group of core gamers that bough PS2s early in that gen. Only problem is that by that point PS2 had such huge sales (X-box1 and GC weren't successful enough) they were getting all the titles to cover other demographics, yet now that same core audience is split between 2 competing consoles. On the other hand, everyone has a Wii as Nintendo expanded the market even further to include previous non-gamers.

@ italics

I never disagreed with this. Yes, that goes for the majority of mainstream adults, and Nintendo have catered for them this gen better than anyone previously. That doesn't mean you can discount the effect of the "mature" titles during the PS1 days coupled with the tech and the marketing. During that time it was suddenly OK for 20-30 somethings to play games thanks to the stuff I mentioned above that helped to expand the market. Now its family friendly entertainment that's expanding the market.

Finally, I was 11 I think? Got it at 13. But like I said above, Sony catered to the younger demographics as much as to young adults.

Worthwile? Lol, yeah, before Sony gaming was unworthy of our time!

Let me guess, your first console was PSone. Maybe 2, right?

Sorry, you'll have to pull your head out of Kaz's butt before I can hear you

I see Sony's stables are rich in talking horses. They are yelping vigorously since E3 times, did someone kick their butts then or what? xD

Excuse me?  Who put you in charge of deciding who is cool and who is not?  Sure, you're entitled to your opinion, but I'm entitled to the opinion that yours is offensive and incorrect.