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PSP To Refocus on Teen Market
Wired's Game|Life blog, and writer Chris Kohler, have the news that the PSP will be aiming at teen users in the near future. This from PSP senior product manager John Koller, who connected the recent system price cut to this new initiative. "Going forward, Sony will unveil the 'Dude, Get Your Own' campaign. The idea this year, says Koller, is to 'break out of the home cycle.' A significant amount of PSP users in that 13-17 group play the device at home. 'The teens that are doing this value the ability to utilize the portability,' Koller notes paradoxically. By portability, he clarifies, he means 'I can play it upstairs while my parents are watching the TV downstairs.'"
Because targeting it at the 20 something crowd who actually could afford it did wonders for sales?
I can see this move if this was October and XMas was looming. But early April? "Mommy I want a PSP for Easter. Pwetty pwease? How about Memorial Day?"
I smell pre-whatever-the-hell-e3-is-this-year-hype... Or a quick attempt to keep their product relevant and on the shelves.
*Waits to see if Nintendo fires back by dropping the DS Lite to $149 or $129 (could kill both the PS2 and PSP in one shot lol)*
Insert Sig Here
I saw one of the new ads on Sony's PSP website. It read "Easily more affordable than having a girlfriend. Dude, get your own." It seems to imply a scenario of trading up a PSP for someone's girlfriend, to which the reply is "Dude, get your own (girlfriend)." I'm sure that's not what it is supposed to mean, but the combination of tag-lines on that particular ad could have been better thought out. Not to mention the overall demeaning tone of the piece, I'm not sure who it is supposed to appeal to; it seems to make fun of teenage boys who do not have girlfriends by reassuring them that hey, at least your video games are cheaper than the girlfriend would be, and at the same time it encourages teenage boys to think of girls as little more than paid service providers. So right there you've alienated boys without girlfriends, girls all together, and any other teens that might find the ad offensive. I guess at least it isn't as bad as "Take a running leap here" posters near subway tracks.