Sony PSP reaching new demographics
Not to long ago, SCEA’s senior marketing manager John Koller was talking up Sony PSP’s increasingly widespread appeal, due to the apparent shift in games from the 28-40 year old professionals the company targeted primarily to increasingly younger games.
Mr Koller is now on a tour of US media offices discussing Sony’s marketing strategies for the coming year. He spoke of how the company will not only be targeting young gamers but capitalising on the growing female gamer market.
“Our audience continues to get younger and younger. Our research shows that young mothers now have the highest propensity to purchase a PSP over the next year for their children,” he said.
Sony believes that there are many factors that have helped this shift including the various colour options, the growing games catalogue – over 400 games – and the price drop in the US from $199 to $169.
Although Sony are aware of this new demographic and its importance, Koller promises that Sony will be sticking to the original plan for the consoles technical development. PSP was always meant to be something that could effectively take on Nintendo’s DS and Apples iPod, and with the launch of new functions like GPS, Skype and Go!View video download service, it has a good chance.
As of yet, Sony has not really done much to encourage the new demographic aside from the pink coloured PSP, but with this news, publishers should start to take note and bring their games to the console instead of putting them on ‘girl friendly’ handhelds like DS.
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