Sony Preps Family-Oriented Marketing Expansion

Nintendo may be considered the quintessential "family" company in the world of video games, but Sony wants a piece of that pie, too.

According to a recent article at Video Business, Sony is planning to drop some heavy campaigns designed to target all ages, and this involves games like SingStar, LittleBigPlanet, and MLB 07: The Show. And in addition to the software, Sony will advertise the PS3 as the "most comprehensive Blu-Ray Disc player available on the market." At this point, it's the only Blu-Ray player that will also play DVDs, and it's also the only one that is Web-enabled.

[marionz]

sony needs to draw the kids in quick, i know its too expencive for kids to buy a ps3 but if they dont find a way soon to pry the cash from the parents hands then all the kids will be getting cheaper consoles like the 360 and wii
with games out there like viva pinata, blue dragon, banjo kazooie, naruto, kameo, mario and so on where else are the kids girls and casual gamers going to go? ill add my mum to that list....she loves her 360 :p

[Robotz Rule]

A price drop would really help Sony.Many people want a Playstation 3 but can't afford it so they go with the 360 and or Wii,that explains the Wii sales:)

[marionz]

yeah if they drop the price and get some cool new games that appeal to me i would almost be sold on a ps3, i still dont think it could outclass the 360 but i would consider getting one for its exclusives
little big planet is a good step in the rite direction, and thats what they need to focus on now, not gimmics like home or folding at home but actual games
i dont count jak & daxter or ratchet & clank, they are as outdated as crash bandicoot, give us some fresh new ideas sony
its not just 20 to 35 year old males that play games

[power of Green]

Software value for the price isn't there with the PS3 I doubt Wii is selling like hot cakes because people can not or will not buy a PS3. When you say People want the PS3 you mean people from game sites and tech sites taking polls?. LLLOOOOOLLLLLL. If the PS3 was right now!; what it was suppose to be durring pre launch hype it would have sold much better my point is its a combo of many things. We'll see though; do folks even consider that the consumer mass is just moving on(Nintendo to PlayStation in the 4th generation is one example).

[shortyNZ]

i mean i gave up on sega and went to sony, gave up on them and went to MS, times change and people grow up and learn what consoles suit them best
and at this point its true sony doesnt have the games to make the ps3 a worthwhile purchace, same goes for the wii
good luck to sony changing their image, i dont really like them anymore but obviously they still have their fans

[StrboyM]

honestly....the wii sold cause it delivered on what it said it would....the ps3 will deliver, but hasent shown up yet....trust me when i say it will do much better when a price drop rolls in..if they can get it to $450 that would be the sweet spot. the article is right though, educating people about the ps3 and all its features would promt them to take a closer look.

for those into games and those who arent

Ps3 games - some of the best and brightest and even more coming soon
Blu ray player/movies,- doing very well at the moment
playes your exsisting library of ps games
can store your music and photos
internet browser - not the best but still good enough to check email
folding @ home - a noble feature to help people find a cure for some deseases
home - promising commmunity feature that will be a part of every ps3
psn/store - get downloads of games and demos
hdmi - 60gig hdd - 4 usb ports - built in wifi - wireless controllers

man the ps3 is sweet

[consolecrusader]

Don't go that route, the wii is $250 thats why it is hot. Look at their library of games its horrendous...don't be naive...

[ITR]

And a game like Red Steel sold a approx. million copies and is still selling.

With that many sells I doubt that game was that bad.

It's also nice to have a choice of games.

[_insane_cobra]

Good luck with that...

[THAMMER1]

The software is what gave Sony Value in the past. Some more appealing games or a new age type IP that screams this is what PS3 is about is what they need to bring back the value.

[Elginer]

While I think it's a smart move of Sony trying to make their new console as family friendly as possible. Many parents are still going to see it as a video game machine, more so a video game machine that costs 600bucks plus tax and at least one or two games. That's far too pricey and the game library just is not there. With this year so many games hitting the Xbox 360 like Mass Effect, HALO 3, Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon (teenagers/young adults) and later on this year the Wii (and it being 250 and family friendly) with Mario Galaxy, Metroid 3 and more small fun Wii games, the PS3 is a hard sell.
Telling you mom that it plays blu-ray movies, odds are she'll just go "it's a fancy dvd player and the movies cost what 34 bucks a piece!" I know that was my mothers reaction when I was just talking about the PS3 to her lol. I may get one when the price is right and WHEN the games are there, games like Ratchet and Clank and Drake don't seem like system sellers (opinion). The Ratchet series sold as well as it did because the install base of PS2's was already there. It wasn't the game that made you go "OH SNAP I NEED A PS2!" They were great games but games that most picked up because they were on a console you already owned and they were priced lower then third party games. The Original Ratchet was 39.99 brand new which was the reason why I myself bought it. If they want to sell this system and make it more family oriented they need more "kids" games but also they need to make the system affordable, or at least as affordable as they can. Currently it's really not- even if it had the block buster games it needs. Perhaps once the MGS and FF games come out and there is a price drop the console can finally pick up some steam. But with all the competition and the lower prices of the Wii and 360 along with their upcoming and already released games, the PS3 is a very hard sell for families.

The PS3 has a lot of promise and some nice A/V things going for it, but lets face it, most people don't buy a PS3 to watch movies. They wanna play some great games and I mean the quality of great games that were on the PS2. So far it's not happening and the truly BIG games are far off, which is sad. The more people keep waiting for these games to buy a PS3, the more the competitions install numbers go up. If everyone keeps waiting for the "right" time. It may be too late.

[THAMMER1]

I was in EB last night and a guy in front of me bought PS2 Spiderman 3 and asked when would the PS3's price drop. The store clerk just looked at him straight faced and said "If you want a price drop any time soon you mite as well buy it now." The guy just walked out look pissed off.

Parents of average families are not spending $600.00 on a toy. A car maybe but not a toy.

[techie]

See that is strange in the State that you don't get pricedrops. I think in the UK they have a huge markup. Because retailers (mainly online) drop the price quite considerably all the time...especially if sales aren't where they want them to be.

UK retailers also drop the price of games before they are even out....eg. Halo 3 is reduced by £10 on Amazon. It's very common over here...is it not like that in the States? I think that kind of freedom for retailers is healthy.

Right now I could buy a PS3 for £390 including motorstorm for free, and a free HDMI cable. Sony UK want this to happen...it's down to the retatilers for the first price drop. And as you can see, that's a drop of £35 ($70) plus a free game (£30 - recommended £40)...and a free HDMI (£12)...so that's a "price drop" of £77 ($150).

Now although that is an "offer" and one which won't stick...I believe the price is commonly £399 now (price drop of $50), plus games are cheaper on the PS3 (recommended retail £40...commonly found for £30 - 360 is recommended £50...found for £40).

[Elginer]

See now that's an awesome deal, if they would let retailers in the US do this then I'm sure the PS3 sales would pick up. If at least a bit. A PS3 with a free game and HDMI cable is a sweet deal. Alas it's all one price and that's if, if you can't afford it; you're just out of luck. I have seen some small etailers sell it it for a couple of dollars cheaper but nothing drastic like in the UK and Japan.

Which it makes the sales over in Japan sound ever worse. They can get a PS3 cheaper then just about anyone, yet it's still not selling well. The Wii and DS just dominate over there. I think it's going to take a Final Fantasy game to really crack the market open over there, along with the US.

[Anego Montoya FTMFW]

w/ LBP, Singstar and Eye of Judgment coming out soon.
the price will drop.
Sony`s not stupid.

either way their are millions of kids who will WANT to get Eye Of Judgment, if they start making TV adds for the it.
and SOME of their parents WILL get it for them.
For how much $$$ some parents can spend on yu-gi-oh, $600 isn`t that much when their parents can use it for games,movies and internet for them.