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PlayStation Suite Gamers: Casual, Core or somewhere in the middle?

by Steven Williamson on 21 March 2011, 14:04

Tags: Sony Computers Entertainment Europe (NYSE:SNE)

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With Sony’s new digital game store, PlayStation Suite set to launch shortly alongside Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Play gaming mobile phone, it’s going to be interested to see what content Sony has planned as it sets out to appeal to a broad section of consumer gaming habits across the various platforms. In addition to Xperia Play, the PlayStation Suite will also be available via Tegra chip-equipped Android phones and tablets, as well as Sony’s new hand-held, the NGP, possibly by the end of the year. It’s also likely that other devices will carry the application at some point as Sony looks to grab a slice of the hugely profitable casual gaming market.

In truth, it’s actually a little confusing as to who Sony is trying to target with PlayStation Suite. On one hand you’ve got early NGP adopters, who are likely to be the same core audience that bought the PSP – those who like JRPGs, Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy. On the other hand, you’ve then got the other end of the spectrum – Android consumers who will expect to pay very little and get their thrills from casual games such as Angry Birds. Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Play looks like it will sit somewhere in the middle of the two, attracting consumers who want a better quality gaming experience, but won’t expect to pay too much for the privilege. So, will PlayStation Suite have a wide range of games catering for all three sets of gaming habits?

It’s still unclear. SCEE president Andrew House has told MCV that Sony’s main target is the audience that sits somewhere between the core gamer and casual gamer. He says that the PlayStation Suite is “a response to the way consumer tastes have shifted.” He uses the notion of a pyramid, with core players being at the top and casual players at the bottom - House believes there’s a space currently unfulfilled right in the middle. It’s these people, by Sony’s own admission, who it is really targeting.

"Our feeling, and our research bears this out, is that there's potential for an audience that sits in-between those two. An audience that wants a more quality gaming experience than they currently get from the mobile space - but they want the convenience of having that on their smartphone,” House tells MCV

"So with that in mind, we thought if we were to open up the PlayStation experience towards a greater variety of Android devices, then we can perhaps serve that market. That is essentially the thinking behind PlayStation Suite."

What about everyone else though, is Sony bothering to cater for core and casual gamers too? Well, with the upcoming launch of Xperia Play on March 31, which brings with it a bizarre range of six pre-installed games, it's unclear who Sony is targeting. It looks like everyone is catered for with the likes of: Bruce Lee Dragon Warriors, Tetris, Star Battalion, Crash Bandicoot, FIFA 10 and The Sims 3, but the focus is all over the place. Wisely enough perhaps, it seems as though Sony is still edging its bets, not really knowing just yet what type of audience is going to buy Xperia Play; but that line-up doesn’t instil us with confidence that Sony knows which way this is going to go.

It seems that the fate of the PlayStation Suite in the long term will be determined by what games it opens up to the masses. If Sony does try too hard to cater for one specific type of gamer then it could severely lose out on other platforms, but if it opens up a broad range of games across a variety of genre catering for core and casual gamers, then there shouldn’t be too much to worry about. In this first year of the PlayStation Suite, it’s going to be very interesting to see what tactics Sony employs. For now though, I think we'll sit back and see how the PlayStation Suite pans out over the coming months after the launch of Xperia Play.


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