Sony acknowledged mistakes in marketing the PlayStation Vita

[heartgold]

Sony PlayStation Germany Chief Uwe Bassendowski at gamescon has given out PS Vita's disappointing worldwide sales and goes on to say Sony made a mistake by not marketing Vita for the younger audience and something they wish to correct in the future. Here is a more accurate translation by neogaf below.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=41165209&postcount=1
http://playfront.de/sony-22-millionen-verkaufte-ps-vita-fehler-beim-marketing/

Sony acknowledged mistakes in marketing the PlayStation Vita as said by Sony PlayStation Germany Chief Uwe Bassendowski at gamescom.

The most important mistake was to lose sight of the younger audience, a mistake they want to make right again. According to Bassendowski they want to change the direction of PS Vita marketing to focus on a younger audience and they want to improve their presence in corresponding media.

Furthermore Bassendowski confirmed that 2.2 million device have been sold worldwide. Specific numbers for Germany were not given

For comparison here's a graph. You can see it's on dreamcast level on terms of sales, expect dreamcast tracking is only for Japan vs PsVita worldwide sales. Now that is just shocking.

 

[Guild McCommunist]

I'm not exactly seeing why this is relevant since we've all known the Vita hasn't been doing well.

But hi soulx while I'm at it.

 

[Zetta_x]

I didn't realize the GBA had such momentum for shipments

 

[Ryupower]

some else that hurting the vita is lack of key games that help sell systems in the different regions

like when MH(Monster Hunter) hits the vita in Jp
you should see a spike in sale of the system

also some regions it might be like the how the
Xbox/360 is in JP, it sell, but not that well

 

[The Milkman]

I'm actually starting to hope the Vita does better, I'm getting sick of hearing my fellow Nintendo fans (not on this site in particular) talk about how "PSVita haz np gaemz"

 

[chris888222]

I'm not exactly seeing why this is relevant since we've all known the Vita hasn't been doing well.

But hi soulx while I'm at it.

It's news that Sony is acknowledging and trying to rectify the current issue. I'm a bit surprised you aren't exactly happy about it.

I'm actually starting to hope the Vita does better, I'm getting sick of hearing my fellow Nintendo fans (not on this site in particular) talk about how "PSVita haz np gaemz"

Well... Payback?

Sony has a couple of good titles coming, they just need more advertising or some sort and bundle the set with a mem card so that some bitches can stop complaining.

 

[Sterling]

I'm not exactly seeing why this is relevant since we've all known the Vita hasn't been doing well.

But hi soulx while I'm at it.

We're driving the point home. As much as some people would like to say otherwise, the PS Vita is doing pretty terrible. At some point soulx will probably come in here, but you two should get along.

 

[Clydefrosch]

well the gba did sell really well back in the day didnt it?

anyway, didnt sony ignore the younger audience since like... the ps3 launch? what where they expecting?

 

[FireGrey]

I think their issue was not understanding who exactly their audience were.

 

[FireEmblemGuy]

I still think the biggest flaw was a lack of available software. Uncharted aside, every major Vita game up until now has been a port, as far as I can think of; Persona 4 The Golden is the closest I can think of to at least a major port, like OoT was for the 3DS. The only big game I can think of coming up might be Assassin's Creed. It also hurts that it doesn't have full PSN compatibility with the games its predecessor can play. It was an overall poorly-planned launch, and they still haven't rectified those issues.

I do think the PS Vita has a lot of potential; it's packing hardware above what most high-end phones are, at a lower price. I'd love to play Disgaea 3, Persona 4, UMvC3 and the MGS games on a handheld, but I don't want to buy a $250 machine just to play ports. Still pissed about losing that Tempmas arcade tourney, so close to getting one for free.

 

[Giga_Gaia]

The 3DS was doing just as worst when it launched, but then they released good games and it picked up. This is also true for every consoles at launch. It will happens with the Vita.

 

[Scott-105]

It's a shame it's doing so poorly. The system has a lot of potential, and if it doesn't sell, devs won't tap into that well of potential. I'm hoping the upcoming games, such as All Star Battle Royale boosts sales a bit.

 

[mad_gamer_jad]

I think their issue was not understanding who exactly their audience were.

I couldn't agree more.
The Vita is awesome and I love mine, but sony seriously can't into the handheld market. They need to understand that trying to target the console audience with games like Ass Creed, Cawadooty, and Uncharted won't do much because of the mentality of many gamers saying "Why should I play this on a handheld when I can play a better version on the big screen."
The novelty of playing console games on the go to many casuals, is just that, a novelty. The reason why the 3DS, and the DS before it, sell like crazy is because they offer accessible "short bursts" experiences like Super mario, brain age, animal crossing, mario kart, and pokemon which then create an install base that allows bigger games like the recent Kid Icarus and RE, or others like Zelda, shooters and obscure RPGs to flourish.
It's not just about the vita not having games, it actually has an amazing line up that's quite varied just like the 3DS, but none of these games can really push hardware or spread word of mouth
It's also slightly expensive, but you're getting your money's worth

 

[xist]

You can make graphs show anything you want....

Ultimately it means nothing given that prevailing market conditions are never the same, nor is competitive force.

Ultimately if the Vita goes down it's a bad thing for everyone, Nintendo included. Narrowing the market to one dedicated handheld vs everything else and it's casual friend spells disaster for proper games on the go.

 

[Vampire Lied]

The target audience should be little kids for a $250-$300 system? The problem isn't just the games available, it's the damn price. An influx of kiddie games still won't sell it. Not in this economy. Do they not watch their competitors? Lower price made sales for 3ds, not a turn towards the imagine series or petz games. If Sony doesn't lower the price, ppl still won't buy it. Even if they do come out with fluffy foo foo land instead of killzone. SMH...Sony has no clue about what's killing them.

 

[chris888222]

The 3DS was doing just as worst when it launched, but then they released good games and it picked up. This is also true for every consoles at launch. It will happens with the Vita.

The Vita was known for its bolster of amazing software coming since it was announced. People's impression of the system will definitely leap. With this, the impression of the system will slide just as bad.

ON TOPIC:
Hate to add smartphones to this conversation, but casuals will rather buy $.99 - $7.99 apps on their droid/iDevice than spend $250 - $350 on a brand new system. This applies to 3DS as well actually.

Sony really need to know who they're aiming at. Nintendo did mention that the 3DS was aimed at the mass market, but Sony right now are still quite clueless. I'm not trying to bash Sony here, but you definitely need a core aim in order for sales to surge. Right now they are pretty much just coming out games for the system with no clue who exactly will buy them.

What they are doing now isn't going to help much... "we need to aim at the more younger crowd..." Chances are you will neglect the other side, just like how you neglect the present. You must say "no. We are aiming for overal/hardcore/anythingl."

 

[Satangel]

Come on PSV! Don't back down now! I haven't given you up, definitely not.

 

[xist]

It's mostly irrelevant whether they know who they're aiming at when finding any advertising for the Vita is like pulling a needle out of a planet sized haystack. Many non-gamers don't even know what a Vita is, but thanks to adverts could probably name a couple of 3DS games.

Even when they do advertise (Xperia for example) it seems like they've missed their audience again...the recent Xperia adverts we had in the UK made it seem like the Xperia was targeted at 8 year olds. A concerted marketing campaign, increased consumer awareness, more games and some shift on the memory card pricing would do wonders. Realistically until they lower the manufacturing/shipping costs we can't expect a failing company to drop the price on a premium piece of hardware.

 

[MasterM]

I didn't realize the GBA had such momentum for shipments

It basically didn't have any competition. And it had incredible games.
And Pokemon.

 

[chris888222]

It's mostly irrelevant whether they know who they're aiming at when finding any advertising for the Vita is like pulling a needle out of a planet sized haystack. Many non-gamers don't even know what a Vita is, but thanks to adverts could probably name a couple of 3DS games.

Even when they do advertise (Xperia for example) it seems like they've missed their audience again...the recent Xperia adverts we had in the UK made it seem like the Xperia was targeted at 8 year olds. A concerted marketing campaign, increased consumer awareness, more games and some shift on the memory card pricing would do wonders. Realistically until they lower the manufacturing/shipping costs we can't expect a failing company to drop the price on a premium piece of hardware.

Here's the thing:
What exactly do you want to advertise? Who is your intended audience? If you don't have a clear aim, your advertising isn't as effective.