The Playstation parent isn’t seeking out senior citizens or any other casual gamer group to boost sales.
Instead of expanding its user base, Sony Computer Entertainment America’s Scott Steinberg says his company is focusing on converting its Playstation 2 owners to the next Sony system.
“I think the reality is that we will win hands-down if we convert the PS2 owners to PS3. When we look at the total available market, we salivate at the notion of converting our existing PS2 universe,” stated Steinberg. “Every million units we drop into the PS2 is an annuity that’s going to pay out later on for PS3 upgrades, and we’ve got some interesting ideas on how to reach out to those PS2 owners in the US and convert them up.”
Steinberg denied that Sony is bringing any motion controller to the PS3.
“I think the notion of that controller is a non-trivial point that you’ve brought up, that control and that familiarity is like comfort food – from my perspective, we lead, we don’t follow,” he said. “And as a brand, Nintendo’s got their thing, and we’re not trying to get the senior citizen group to get into gaming, we’re looking to convert the PS2 owners and the tens of millions of installed base that were playing DVDs and playing games on their PS2, to now play Blu-ray movies and Blu-ray games with their PS3.”
Continuing, Steinberg talked about leading the industry with consoles with long lifespans.
He reiterated, “We would look at technology that helped enable that, as oppose to trying to iterate or be derivative off of somebody else’s vision,” he said. “Ten years – it goes back to our mantra of ten years. Technology that’s associated with the PlayStation has to have future-proof qualities to it.”
Although arguably misguided, Steinberg has remained consistent in his belief that the Wii will disappoint developers.
A year ago, Steinberg commented, “The Wii will start to look really dated in a couple years when developers get more value from the 360 and learn more and more about the PlayStation 3. … How much value can developers and creative folks get out of this wrist motion two years from now, or 5 years from now, or 10 years from now?”
Source: GamesIndustry
