Tue, Aug 24, 2010 | 02:12 BST
SCEE: PSP now aiming for a “younger” crowd
How are you feeling today? Creaky? A tad grizzled? How does a bowl of ice cream sound to you? Like unnecessary calories and an increased risk of diabetes? Can you explain – in a few excessively enthusiastic sentences – what a “Bakugan” is? No?
Then the PSP probably isn’t for you anymore.
“What is now a key emphasis for us is focusing on a younger audience who are the prime audience for a dedicated gaming device with deeper, more immersive content: they may have less disposable income, but they’ve got more time to play. We’re looking to mine that content library which we’ve assembled over the last few years and restructure the value-proposition,” SCEE president Andrew House said to Edge in response to a question how Sony has changed its PSP development strategy.
“[The budget Essentials range] in its first couple of months since launch has been a phenomenal success on two fronts – not just in actual sales, but the uptake there has been on overall PSP software which has seen a knock-on effect. I would argue that we’re starting to see what we originally intended – that it’s helping to breath life into sales of the hardware as well,” he explained.
The bottom line? If you’re hoping to wake up one morning buried under a mountain of brand new PSP games, you probably ought to just roll over and go back to sleep – because it’s only happening in your dreams. Sorry, folks.
18 comments
#1
Psychotext
24/08/10, 2:22 am
I iz down with it!
/does old man dance
#2
osric90
24/08/10, 2:36 am
Not trying to be either a d!ck of funny guy but that kid looks like holding a c0ck.
#3
DarkElfa
24/08/10, 4:58 am
That kid is a cock. Seriously, he’s an unfunny little bastard in everything he’s in.
#4
Crysis
24/08/10, 5:44 am
they wannt to aim this @ kids, decrease their damned price! sure it’s floating around the same price as the DS, which is obviously cheaper to make, but if they want to sell more, they better give us a reason to buy it..
#5
kingofscotland
24/08/10, 8:52 am
Well the PS1 and PS2 both moved to a more casual younger audience when their replacement came out, so maybe, just maybe….
A PSP2 really is on its way for a showing at TGS as they are already moving to the casual audience.
TGS = PSP Price Drop & PSP2 announcement
#6
2plus2equals5
24/08/10, 9:30 am
“Then the PSP probably isn’t for you anymore”
I hope it’s not true
@5:my bet is that we’ll see psp2 on next year’s e3.
#7
Erthazus
24/08/10, 9:46 am
@5 PSP 2 in the TGS? Not a chance until Nintendo will push it’s 3DS.
#8
Crysis
24/08/10, 9:54 am
i think we’ll hear of that psp phone @ TGS, & maybe next E3 we’ll hear about the psp2
#9
Robo_1
24/08/10, 9:56 am
I reckon the new God Of War will be the systems swan song for big budget titles. After that, it’ll be all eyes on PSP2.
That said, reports that the tech in nowhere near ready for launch, and talk of an Android powered PSP phone could mean we’ve got at least another year with the current model. Although if anything meaningful will be left of the PSP market by that time is anyones guess.
#10
cookiejar
24/08/10, 10:22 am
@5 Exactly. Sony always shift their machines to younger audiences as a successor comes out. Somink is brewing.
#11
Crysis
24/08/10, 10:29 am
@9, completely agrred, also pokemon Black & White appears to be Nintendo’s DS ‘Swan Song’
#12
get2sammyb
24/08/10, 11:06 am
I think they could do really well in the kids market with a price-change. Something like Eye Pet PSP would be magic for kids. If they could get that out for $99.99 with the game, camera and perhaps a UMD movie I think they’d be VERY successful. Not DS numbers, but I think it would substantially change their fortunes.
What do I know, though?
#13
Crysis
24/08/10, 11:25 am
they just need to lower the price of the psp, the Go was quite a failure, still to this day being beaten by a 10 year old device(PS2) in sales, Sony should drop it & admit it failed @ reaching any significant number or lower the price to below the 3000 model, afterall, who wants to pay more for less? then again it does come with bluetooth & i think 16gb internal memory… but the disk drive is still important to many users because there is only 1 service available to obtain games on the Go & i don’t think people want PSN dictating how much they pay for a game when it’s UMD alternative is cheaper, but PSN SHOULD be cheaper since it cuts out the retailer, the disks & the postage.
#14
freedoms_stain
24/08/10, 11:32 am
There are still a lot of games I want on PSP, but I don’t really want to pay >£100 for one.
Drop the price to like £80 and I’m there.
#15
2plus2equals5
24/08/10, 11:45 am
I have to buy: god eater, mgs:pw, persona3p, valkyria chronicles 2, gow:gos, ys: oath of something(XD) and many many more that i don’t remember now.
#16
Droid
24/08/10, 12:02 pm
I thought they were already aiming for kids. Anything younger and they’ll hit the toddler/baby market.
#17
pspgamer01
24/08/10, 12:03 pm
If the psp dies I will keep playing it. So long you can play online.
#18
pspgamer01
24/08/10, 12:05 pm
oh yeah @ 2 and 3
he’s not holding a cock but a dildo. xD