Sony: 'Casual and Family Audience has Gravitated Towards' the PlayStation 4 - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 09 September 2014 / 7,098 Views
It was last month when Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida said he did not understand why the PlayStation 4 was selling as well as it is. The PlayStation 4 has taken an early lead in the 8th generation home console race selling more than 10 million units.
Sony's Andrew House and UK MD Fergal Gara both spoke with MCVUK, who asked them why the PlayStation 4 was selling so well.
House stated that there was a lot of "pent-up" demand they did not foresee. The last generation of home consoles was the longest in history. He added that the casual and family audience has moved from the Wii last generation to the PlayStation 4 this generation.
"The killer apps are important, but again that range of content has proved to be what people have been looking for," said House. "There was also, and I must confess I don't have a great handle on this, a sense of really strong in-built pent-up demand that surprised us."
"I remember talking to one of the publishers before launch, and they were saying that there was this demand very firmly [that there was this demand]," House continued. "You are obviously wary of wandering into that very optimistic view of the world, but it certainly proved to be the case. It was a very long lifecycle gap."
"And the other thing is that the shift in the dynamic has been the performance of the Wii U," he added. "Certainly when I look at Europe, that more casual and family audience has gravitated towards our platform. Whereas, when you think about the previous generation, they found a different destination."
Gara stated the reason for the strong PlayStation 4 sales is that Sony has created a great console and that consumers know this. He added that Microsoft and Nintendo both stumbled out of the gate, which has also helped the PlayStation 4.
"First of all, I think we created a great machine and positioned it very well upfront," said Gara. "That all went fantastically, and the gaming community remember that. It wasn’t quite the same for others and therefore we got off to a great start."
"But even more importantly, when people have got that machine into their hands, it’s great. For me, a good example would be how we have focused on the gamer. From the moment you take PS4 out of the box and put in your brand new copy of any game you choose, your time to actually gaming is remarkably quick. Significantly faster than it was with PS3, and it compares extremely well with any competing device. So that is an example of where we are offering a great experience even on a multiplatform game."
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A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. Outside, in the real world, he has a passion for the outdoors which includes everything from hiking to having received his B.A. in Environmental Studies. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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I am sure they got the 360 audience and not the casual audience from the Wii. The Wii audience is playing with smartphones and tablets now ...
If they would sell half the amount Nintendo did with their Wii they could start slowly talking about it but they have 0 casual audience just their current base. It's like Ferrari saying we're gonna make a car target for the budget clients. It will only be $100K
Technically how PS3 evolved with PSN from a poor state into customer appealing from 2009 until PS4 release can be truly accounted for.
Huh. Well, I won't miss the casual games, but it might be interesting to see Sony return to family oriented games. Maybe we'll see the return of more happy, colorful IPs like Ape Escape or Parappa the Rapper. Or Crash...I can dream!
To play shooters?
Kids nowadays play mainly adult violent mainstream games like GTA5 or Watchdogs. The era of real non-violent games only for kids is over.
Proof is, Nintendo games are mainly played by nostalgic adults, not kids.
Thats funny, my brothers Kids play Mario games all the time, looks like you have no idea what you are talking about.
Casuals are unpredictable. Hardcores are the real deal.
But, for the good or the bad, it's Casuals who bring the volumes and, thus, the money...
Sony dominate the hardcore market every generation... But -also- winning more casuals means that they can dominate the entire market.
So basically it's the PS2 era all over? Well Nintendo is catering more to the hardcore now, lets hope they pick up pace again
Home console wise yes. Its like ps2 era. But in handheld wise ps vita is quite dead and 3ds struggling. I dont see handhelds thriving again. Smartphones have almost killed handhelds.
i think u mean wii lol
Sony was the only one that wasn't breaking down all the time and freeze up like the Wii and the Wii u Nintendo DS is always going bad
You seem to know what you're talking about, but I'll just leave this here anyway.
http://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/SquareTrade_Xbox360_PS3_Wii_Reliability_0809.pdf
They're definitely the preferred platform for sports games. But to early to tell as they'd need to capture more marketshare for Lego and Skylanders games to make that claim.
What game on ps4 is for family ?There is only Knack in my mind
Ps4 is a console for hardcore not for casual
Except the 3ds nintendo is quite dead. I predict their next home console wont cross wii u sales. Its sad to see nintendo got carried away with their arrogance.
Selling 100k+ a week is dead? Sure its nothing to the DS but far from dead.
@_crazyman: why everyone always equates 'dead' with 'sales'. It's more like the Three-DS get less healthy number of games these days. Just like Wii, Wii was selling like no tomorrow but it pretty much dead with the game drought.
People always made mistake when analyse Nintendo. Nintendo's business is not to sell consoles the main business is to sell games. WiiU is not selling what Nintendo wanted, but is outselling X1 in worldwide for 12 weeks in consoles and softwares.
WiiU sold about 28 million of physical games and 85% of this games are from Nintendo, so Nintendo sold almost 24 million of games in 1 year and 9 months. It's very good! This is the Nintendo's business.
Makes sense. casuals are the lowest common denominator in gaming so they flock to whatever idiot tells them what is more powerful. In this case the PS4. This means the Wii U and Xbox One are for the core gamers and PS4 is for everyone but it has the casual crowd that everyone hates...
There is no true hardcore gamer that plays his games on Xbone, lol. PS4 has all of the gamers. Xbone has the teens, Wii U has the kids and old nintendo fans. Just because this article says casuals are buying PS4 does not make it a casual only console. Hardcore gamers are PC and PS4. (Usually they own both).
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