Sony's Karakker On Turning Around PS3 Buzz

simoniker writes "Sony's new PR boss Dave Karakker has been talking about his challenges handling publicity for the PlayStation 3, explaining how Sony will be switching things up: 'We were allowing media to drive the message for us, and interpret it for us. So allowing someone like Peter Moore, who's a good friend of mine, to stand up there and say negative things about Sony, there wasn't anybody refuting that. People just took that for face value. Now we're very aggressively defending our turf.' He also defend the lack of universal achievements on PS3: 'Frankly, how I view it is I don't care if you're great at Madden if I'm playing you in Resistance. Because that doesn't tell me you're that much better in Resistance. An overall score doesn't really tell me much, it tells me you've spent a lot of time online, it tells me you spend a lot of time playing games, but it doesn't tell me how good you are at a particular game.'" Should be noted that Simoniker is a former Slashdot editor -- also, the AP write-up about reactions to the PS3 is quite positive.

Comments

I gave up

[tkrotchko]

I made it to page 4 of 5. But the interviewer clearly is more concerned with being a buddy than asking anything interesting or inciteful.

Here's two of his question on the first page:

GS: Sounds fun!

GS: Woah!

and on the second page, he says:

GS: It did seem like there were a number of mis-statements, and this may be a media misperception, but did you have to work to rein people in and make sure they're on message?

Even the Sony guy didn't claim that (and note the spelling error is the web site's not mine)

And then he asks:
GS: Don't take offense to this, but is the system going to be able to hold up to being always on?

Why worry about if he's going to take offense? This is not journalism, this is a fan blog. Don't worry about offended a PR flac... that's his job. Ask questions that mean something... "The console looks impressive, but it's the most expensive. Why do you think gamers will buy it?". Don't pretend all negative buzz is just from people not being on message.

The guy doesn't have to be combative, but he should ask some questions that are hard and that might be interesting to the readership.

Paid well

[Fozzyuw]

I hope their new PR guy is good. They do have a lot overcome. However, there has been a lot of doom and gloom viral marketing for the PS3 which is not entirely true. Even though I've speculated a lot on /. about Sony's poor choices on the PS3 and how it expect it to hurt their sales, I have also been (finally) seeing more information on their games and their hardware and I'm pretty interested in it. Some of their screen shots are breathtaking.

Was the most controversial, Blu-Ray, the right thing to do? Hmm... I'm still going to say no. However, like I've said in the past, looking at the perspective of adding it or leaving it, I can only defend adding it, all things considered once I think about it...

• Add a stand alone Blu-ray option? No, it's a game machine, it should have a standard media and not duel/split media. I'd hate to see a game developed 'exclusively' for the Blu-Ray player.
• Price? I cannot comment directly, but for some reason, I just don't see the price dropping significantly. Sony is already taking a big chunk of the cost of new units. Without Blu-Ray, Sony will be just taking less of a hit, but still charging $500. And lets face it. When it comes to gamers who can spend $400 on the latest video card, $500 for a full system can be justified for them. Such, it does suck when the competition is at $250 and $400, but hey, those are the rules.
• Blu-Ray as a medium? This is Sony's baby. If they don't start forcing this down people's throats, it might not make it in the next-format wars. Sony's set to reap tons of profits off Blu-Ray licenses, likely more so than anything the PS3 could do, given the fact that if Blu-Ray becomes the adopted standard, it could very well last for well over a decade, much longer than any game console has lasted.

While I think Sony has been doing things ass-backwards as far as Public Relations and response to the 'shock' of the new system on gamers, they do have room to make amends if they just started being a little more respectful and talking up their system on a positive aspect instead of the "you're n00b!" approach.

Cheers,
Fozzy

Retail Channel

[corby]

Hate to say it, Sony, but your biggest image problem right now isn't coming from the media. It's the retail channel.

I walked into a Gamestop this week, and casually asked about the next-gen systems. The employees there pushed the Wii and the 360 hard, and slammed the PS3.

Why? Because the retail outlets know they will be able to sell a bunch of hardware, software, and accessories for the Wii and the 360. They know that customers who hold out for a PS3 will simply spend the holidays on a waiting list, and not spend any cash at the store.

Sony's shipping projections for the PS3 are shrinking every week, and the retailers don't see any reason to bend over for Sony at this time.