Sony Targeting Wii Owners to Purchase PlayStation 4 - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 15 July 2014 / 6,919 Views
Sony is looking at Wii owners who did not own a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 to purchase a PlayStation 4. The PlayStation 4 had the biggest launch in gaming history, but has fallen behind the pace of the Wii by the end of June.
The early success of the PlayStation is due to core gamers, according to Sony Computer Entertainment boss Andrew House who spoke with Eurogamer. House is looking at attracting Wii owners to the PlayStation 4, which he says is already happening.
"Our big opportunity is to welcome back an audience much earlier in the lifecycle that possibly bought into the Wii previously," House said. "Whether it's based on this is a really good all-round entertainment device for a family in addition to having great games, our consumer data suggests some of those people are already coming in now and that's what's contributing to the really great sales we've had."
House is hoping that remastering games from the PlayStation 3 and older generations will find a new audience on the PlayStation 4. The first of these titles is 2013's The Last of Us, which will be remastered and released later this year.
"I hesitate to say this because I know committed gamers may roll their eyes about it," said House, "but there's an opportunity with some of the remastering or re-imagining from PS3 franchises that will potentially find an audience that hasn't played them in the previous generation because they skipped that generation. We're starting to see signs of that."
"That bodes well for us as a platform, but it bodes well for developers and publishers as well," House continued. "I've always looked with envy at the movie industry about what a great job they're able to do with taking content and making it work. Disney is the best example of this, right, of taking classic content and reintroducing it to audiences over time."
"We as an industry haven't done that historically," added House. "We're only just getting into our stride with people who now have been playing for 10, 20 years, who have a nostalgia factor, who want to see those franchises come back and be reinvented. That is a whole other area of exploration I would like to see PS4 to lead the charge on."
House has stated that in Europe 40 percent of PlayStation 4 owners didn't have a PlayStation Plus account. He says this is a good indication of who did not own a PlayStation 3 last generation.
The early success of the PlayStation 4, has surprised even Sony. The company expected the PlayStation 4 to sell five million units by the end of March, but it ended up selling seven million units.
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Most hardcore gamers that owned a Wii also owned another console. Sony is showing disconnection with reality. I would find more believable if they said many 360 owners switched over Playstation due to the better specs and price.
Exactly. The majority of the Wii crowd was either multi console owners, Nintendo only fans, or non gamers. 360 owners moving to PS4 makes sense but Wii only owners who would migrate to another platform is an incredibly small number if any at all. Sony has a major disconnect going on right now.
Their is so much stuff that doesn't make sense in their logic here. 40% of people did not have a PS+ account so let me think. When you had a PS3, you did not need a PS+ account for the online. PS4, you do. They will not release the numbers of PS+ accounts which tells me that not all 80 million PS3 owners have a PS+ account, I'd actually be surprised if half of them did so, lets do some math here. Sorry kids, I know it's summer break.
If there are 40% more PS+ people, with 8.8 million PS4s, that would mean that 3,520,000 people never had a PS+ account...That would make 4.4% of the PS3 user base if all of them were from the PS3. Now out of the 80 million PS3s... are they going to tell me that all of those 40% all came from different systems? or would they be more likely to come out of the PS3 user base because 4% is not that much. I am wiling to bet that 38%-39% (ok, i'll go as low as 35%) came from the PS3 user base with those numbers.
The Wii was my gaming device last gen and got me back into console gaming. A lot of what's on Ps4 doesn't interest me, but the Grim Fandango remake announced at E3 and Little Big Planet and Uncharted 4 next year do. Guess I'll just have to be patient for the good stuff.
I wish Sony would not re-release PS3 titles on Ps4, they should just make the Ps4 backwards compatible with PS3. THey do that to make more money, and I'll not be falling for that tactic.
Bad idea to import gamers from Wii. They need to go through an Xbox phase first so they can get all the rage out. Then once they get into their mid 20's they can come to Playstation. Best way to keep the community decent and how it has been for years. We don't want the Xbox age group on PSN.
I have a sense both Sony and MS are really starting to notice the slowdown in sales, and these ideas are starting to pop up. Question is if they have anything to counter that people moved from Wii to smartphones/tablets instead?
PS4 doesn't need casuals
Crash Racing would have been nice. Imagine a PS4 vs. WiiU comparision of Mario Kart 8 vs. Crash Team Racing
Yeah, but sadly Crash is owned by that stupid Activi$ion.
Sony will never be able to use nostalgia because they've always relied on trendy themes that don't work from one generation to the next.
No, a majority of Wii owners would not pay over £200 for a console, never mind over £300, And then there are nearly 7 million that have moved on to Wii U. If Nintendo are struggling to get owners of their previous console to gravitate to their new one, in the face of smartphones and tablets, then what hope do Sony have.
I gotta be honest, I don't believe this for not even one second. I can see 360 only owners migrating to PS4 but Wii only? Pfffft. Everybody knows that a large majority of the Wii audience who either started playing games with Wii and only bought a Wii or came back to gaming with Wii as their only gaming device, flocked in droves to mobile devices. Everybody also knows that the Nintendo faithfuls who only bought a Wii picked up a 3DS and either also own a WiiU or are going to get one in the near future.
Maybe they mean multi console owners as I'm pretty confident Wii only users moved on elsewhere (Apple and Google say hi). Also the ability for any of the console companies to attract the audience that the Wii had is laughably far fetched. Grandma's not going to pick up a WiiU, much less a Xbox or Playstation. Mom and Dad aren't going to buy little Johny and Susie game consoles when they have a smart phone and tablet, not unless they're either A spoiled or B actual gamers which is incredibly doubtful they are.
That Wii crowd is gone. The 3 companies need to get over it and move on. They ain't going to take back a crowd that Google and Apple own now. Not happening.
