Enter the plan: It is now apparent that Sony is aiming for a "family friendly" Christmas holiday in 2012. The number games being released in a few months for the PlayStation 3 comprising of more
family friendly games such a
LittleBigPlanet Karting, All-Stars: Battle Royale, Just Dance 4 and
Sly Cooper: Thieves In Time. Hoping to be released by year's end are some of the PlayStation 3's more ambitious titles with
Wonderbook: Book of Spells and
Sports Champions 2 based on the utilisation of the
PlayStation Move peripheral.
With core games mainly being released on the system throughout the year without fail, the above mentioned games, if all are released by the end of the year, will mark a huge significance on the Sony PlayStation 3's profile. If marketed to the right consumers successfully, predominantly parents of children, then they may soon realise that the PlayStation 3 also offer games suitable for the younger audience. Having said that, they will also have to maintain the genre on a consistent basis rather than just the Christmas period if Sony are to keep those
"consumers" coming back.
During the E3 2012 event, an interview with
Sony Worldwide Studios president, Shuhei Yoshida, made the following statement;
“Our strategy for Christmas is to go big on family-friendly titles. This is a neglected genre for the PlayStation 3, but as it matures, I think it’s really important to have these games on the platform. I think we have a great line-up this holiday to complement third parties’ big core games.”
I would agree that titles aimed for
'children/younger audience or families' have been neglected on the PlayStation 3 platform for many years, only every few titles in that genre are released on the one year. But it is also the mature adolescent and adult commercial marketing that makes the PlayStation 3 console
seem less befitting for
'children and families alike. Nintendo Wii's market is essentially aimed at the family orientated consumers that Nintendo produce and sell convincingly well and. Now Sony is at a position to
try and take a share of that market while its forthcoming core titles are still in development until early next year.
Sony's strategy to persuade some consumers from the 'family group' will require hard impacting marketing if they are to succeed. Unfortunately, Sony's history in marketing commercials (even towards the core gamers) are just plain weird and
"misunderstood". Sony prefers to provide advertisements with no real context to gamers/consumers and seems more like a designer clothing or perfume advertisement (and that's just for the westernised commercials). They'll not only need to
sell the games to their
"potential buyers" (the parents), but they'll also need to really sell their soul to them in order to
move the accessories required to actually play these "family orientated" products! The additional peripherals required to make some of these
family-friendly games functional is a
PlayStation Eye-camera and at least one
PlayStation Move controller. These accessories don't come cheap either, a
Starter Kit will set you back as much as the cost of a brand new released game.
There's still one big component of this elaborate market
take-over attempt for Sony to work, where releasing
family-friendly games by the handful won't be enough to persuade/trick(?) parents to buying their children a completely new console with a game genre that's lacking real experience on the platform.
Enter the rumour: For almost two months leaked rumours of a redesigned PlayStation 3 console have been circulating around the internet. With the revelations of new images floating around, it makes even more believable for each new
"evidence" found. Perhaps it's even more acceptable when some new specifications (built-in storage spaces) and less extravagant (compared to photo-shopped concept arts) images of the new redesign is attached in vague photographed pictures. Although it's yet to be confirmed nor denied, the redesigned PlayStation 3 console may possibly make an exceptional difference in persuading consumers to choose to either purchase one as a 'family gaming console' or a second console (those currently with a different console eg. Nintendo Wii). It would be the perfect blend for Sony to release a slightly smaller and fresh model with a new facade yet still distinguishable to the PlayStation brand. Not only may it possibly have three variants but with the main difference being storage space for the hard-disk drive (16gb, 250gb & 500gb variants).
Probably the most significant of the three, would be the model with a miniscule 16gb size storage space that could significantly reduce the price of the hardware. Leaked images suggest that the new redesigned model will have a top-loading disc drive with a sliding cover instead of the traditional pop-up style that the older generation PlayStation consoles were fitted with.
Enter the price: If the rumoured redesigned PlayStation 3 console's internal processing components are to remain left intact or perhaps just replaced with more cost-effect parts (yet with the same [or better for the motorised 'fans'] quality and function), along with a less expensive manufacturing cost of the console's casing then there's even more of a possibility of pricing the redesigned PlayStation 3 much more competitively against its competitors.
For this instance, specifically directing the attention to the model with the
least-capacity would be the consumer's target product as a very low price will be more enticing. In the US market, if Sony decided to drop US$100 off the redesigned PlayStation 3 base model, then it would surely command it to a staggeringly low US$150 mark. That price would directly compete with Nintendo Wii's recommended retail price, though marking it down further wouldn't be unthinkable either.
Pushing for this goal isn't unfathomable, it would surely help gain potential buyers to be persuaded into entering a new consumer group and it may even get them to realise that the PlayStation 3 has much more to offer than just its gaming aspects. Towards the end of the year, money means a lot...price means everything! Advertising would be the true "key" if Sony wants to achieve their goal with sales of not just the
"family-friendly" products, but also family ties with their hardware. Two must become one, advertising a revamped console on the market with a cheaper price in huge writing is what may actually steal customers from their competitors. But no cryptic advertising will do it, they'll need to make it simple yet effective that will send subliminal messages to the parents to become zombified into buying a brand new shiny black
PlayStation 3...with
family-friendly games.
Enter the waiting game: At this stage, all we can do is wait for Sony to either announce something we may already partially know or speculated upon or see nothing new. The latter pessimism would surely give Sony an abysmal end of year earnings and sales figures. One would think with the recent release of their appalling second quarter corporation earnings this year, they'd bite the bullet and improve during the busiest shopping season. I'd be inclined to rethink of whether Sony actually wants to continue being a part of the gaming industry any longer if they fail to attempt in trying something tried and true that actually works!?
Should you wish to further discuss speculate on the rumoured redesigned PlayStation 3 model, you may do so in the under-used thread here;
ps3.mmgn.com/...