![]() Now we are starting with 100 million gamers, who we hope to transition very, very rapidly onto PS5. Firstly, because we don't begin from a standing start like we did with PS4, when we were coming out of a very lacklustre PS3 platform, with a low level of networking across the community. "We are increasingly bullish in terms of the number of people that we think may engage with PS5. Right now the metric is engagement, and that obviously can be judged across two axis: the number of people who engage with you, and the amount of time that each of those people spend engaging with you. "For example, one reference point, we sold a lot of PS2s, but many of them were at $99, on a format that was very, very heavily pirated. "It's become a lot more nuanced," Ryan agrees. If we measure success by install base alone, then PlayStation peaked over a decade ago with its PS2. We have been speaking about how PS5 might outsell PS4, but install base is actually quite an outdated way of judging the performance of a console. That probably gives us an opportunity to retain those people, where in the past maybe they've gone." The concept of stickiness is that once you're stuck it's hard to unstick. "We have the data to support this - the networked nature of entertainment these days allows for communities to be massively more sticky, and kind-of homogeneous. It certainly existed, but it was more two mates sitting on a couch playing FIFA together, which by its very definition required a physical proximity, and was therefore harder to organise. That sense of community probably didn't exist to the same extent. "A lot of this comes down to the stickiness and tribal nature of the community that we create. "First of all, I think - and this is hypothesis - but maybe some of the 50 year-olds did tune out for a few years while they were having their kids and growing up, and then came back to us when they had more time and money," Ryan suggests. The phenomena of people 'ageing out' of games consoles is a very real one in my world right now, and that's perhaps one reason why there hasn't been a huge amount of audience growth for the console industry over the past 20 years. Very few of them are even considering a PlayStation 5 as a result. I'm in my mid-30s, and all of my friends who spent their youth playing Metal Gear Solid and Crash Bandicoot are now busy with careers and kids. Yet I countered his story with one of my own. Ryan's anecdote about his inbox highlights the opportunity he sees of different age groups playing on PlayStation. Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki said during the company's second quarter earnings call that the company is "committed" to surpassing what PS4 has achieved. This isn't Ryan gloating about the sheer popularity of the PlayStation brand it's actually part of a conversation about how PlayStation 5 might be able outsell PlayStation 4, which has now shipped almost 114 million consoles worldwide. They're just as passionate, just as interested and just as excited by PlayStation as somebody who is old enough to be their father, maybe even their grandfather." better written often than the 53 year-old gamers. And at the same time, I get emails from really young gamers, frequently beautifully written. It's indicating that demographically the age profile is expanding rapidly with each generation. "I am astonished at the number of people who are like that and writing to me. Now we are starting with 100 million gamers" "With PS4, we were coming out of a very lacklustre PS3 platform. "But so many of them are from people in the mid-50s, who say they've been a PlayStation gamer since 1995, and they're asking us to help them get hold of a PS5. "Since the pre-orders went live, every day I open my inbox to some very emotional and heart-wrenching emails from lots of people," Ryan says. Ryan has been around for the launch of every PlayStation there has ever been - he's used to this.īut what has taken PlayStation's CEO by surprise are the types of people who are sending the emails. Over the past few weeks, PlayStation head Jim Ryan has received more than his usual share of emails.įrom the moment PS5 sold out (within minutes), there's been people clamouring to get hold of one for launch day, and who better to help them get one than the guy in charge? That bit is not surprising.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |