PS3 to target younger, casual gamers in 2012

As the year winds down and the holiday season is in full swing, it’s also a time for big game releases and increasing profits for developers and consoles. Just this week, Sony representatives, including the president of their European entertainment wing Jim Ryan spoke out on surprises planned for the New Year, as well as the company’s marketing plans for the near future.

Even with core gamer successes proven and expected this season like Modern Warfare 3 and the upcoming Battlefield 3 release, Sony is planning on targeting more of a family demographic moving forward. The overwhelming success of some of these winter titles has come both in and out of the core gaming market. Certainly there’s been an influx of casual gamers to buy MW3 and Battlefield 3 as well. An initial goal will be to get consoles into the hands of people looking to spend after long term price drops, just as there was with previous Sony gaming platforms.

Ryan was adamant that there will still be plenty of attention focused on the core gaming audience, but did admit that hitting some target markets that were successful with the first two PlayStation consoles would be important. Much of this targeting will seemingly be shined upon the long term price point of the PS3 system, with comparisons to PS1 and PS2.

Sony believes that the history of success is ripe for PS3, especially after the market performances when PS1 and PS2 dropped their pricing points. Jim Ryan spoke on the thought that once the PS3 starts to drop down to its next set of price points will it be able to experience the same success that the first two systems did late in their life cycles. It’s estimated that a vast majority of the previous platforms’ business was generated during the late stages when the prices dropped. Given that the life of the PS3 has coincided almost completely in sync with economic struggles could be telling, especially with console prices that will eventually go down.

Along with the expected increase from casual gamers with lower console prices, expect more focus on the PlayStation Move in the coming years as well. It’s already gotten a great boost from Sony with television advertisements and it really is one of the prime appealers for the younger gamers they are trying to target.

Even with the announcement of an adjusted marketing strategy, there are still plenty of core gaming titles expected to be released in 2012, as well as the near future for PS3 owners. Ryan claimed that there would be tons of interesting releases not only from third party developers for core gamers, but also in house from Sony.

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