The Story of PlayStation

THE STORY OF PLAYSTATION

(PlayStation. Image from wikimedia commons)

How did Sony promote its brand new console? Nintendo’s preferred advertising method involved telling the World that their games were of the highest quality. Sony chose not to use their range of software to promote PlayStation. Instead they advertised the fact that this new console had the strength to be a player in the market. This move was especially important in the early days when the machine was due to launch in Japan. Sony were at pains to attract the hardcore demographic, the really keen videogamers whose buying habits were known to affect the more casual gamer. The earliest advertising slogan for PlayStation was known as the 123 campaign. This idea was the brainchild of Masatsuka Saeki, who is currently director of SCEI advertising division. The PlayStation campaign was modelled on an earlier method used to promote a tiny video camera called the CCD-R5. Saeiki-san had used a teaser campaign to advertise the product and from this experience he learned the factors that made a product suitable for a teaser. Brand new inventions were not suitable, because the public had to be familiar with the product. The machine in question had to be good enough to deliver on all that hype: Something that failed to live up to the public’s expectations would only harm the company’s integrity. Finally, there had to be enough machines on sale to satisfy demand. Saeki was confident that the PlayStation satisfied the first two demands, with only the third being an unknown factor. Nonetheless, Saeki felt Sony’s first console was a suitable product for a teaser campaign.

Sony had already determined that, as it was the market’s most profitable period, early December was the best time to launch. SCEI’s advertising agency suggested that the date should be the 3rd of December. The hardcore demographic had already absorbed all possible information regarding system specifications and only needed to know the launch price and date. By using the date 3rd December, Sony could arrange an advert around the abbreviated 12/3. The slogan ran wait for December 3. The PlayStation will change the world of games like 1 2 3. Or, to put it another way, 12/3. This campaign was successful enough to ensure 100,000 consoles sold on the first day. Subsequent campaigns put forward the message that Sony was in for the long haul. With many consoles ultimately being pulled from the market, buyers needed reassuring that the PlayStation represented a worthwhile investment. The ‘We’ll hit a million units!’ campaign was intended to allay any fears that Sony’s machine would go the way of CD32 and it came about after Saeki read an interview conducted between a local paper and Hiroshi Yamauchi, President of Nintendo. Yamauchi had expressed his belief that the 32bit market was destined to fail by the following summer. He had various reasons to believe such a thing, like the expense of the machines and the fact that Matsushita’s 3DO had failed to meet its sales target. If that company couldn’t make it in this market, why should anyone put faith in Sony being successful? According to Reiji Asakura’s book, Revolutionaries At Sony, Saeki responded to this statement by angrily saying, We’ll show him!…We’ll sell a million (PlayStations). And before the summer when he says the business will have failed! Hence the slogan, We’ll hit a million units!

The PlayStation’s advertising strategy was planned in two phases. The first concern for Sony was to attract the hardcore demographic and so provide a solid foundation. A sales target of two million units was set. After sales reached this figure, the campaign moved onto phase 2. Phase 2 was designed to expand the user base and make videogaming a part of daily life. This had been attempted before with the multimedia machines, but Kutarigi’s genius was in treading with baby steps. The other machines had gone in head first, advertising themselves as some kind of do-it-all miracle. The PlayStation was promoted as a games machine, nothing more and nothing less. Actually, Ken Kutaragi admitted that playing videogames represented just 30% of PlayStation’s ultimate role. Games are nothing but the first step, and the goal for the PlayStation is to provide an entire world of computerized home entertainment. But with the relative expense of DVD and the impossibility of broadband access at that time, Kutaragi decided that the first PlayStation should be dedicated to games playing, which meant the console could live up to expectations.

When the PlayStation was readying for launch in Europe, Sony came up with a strategy that is credited today with lifting videogaming out of its niche image. Rather than promote the console as a children’s toy, Sony’s strategy was to associate it with the lifestyles of 18-25 year olds. David Wilson of SCEE says that the subsequent success Sony enjoyed was achieved largely by moving to an older audience and away from the younger audience of Sega’s Sonic The Hedgehog and Nintendo’s Mario. PlayStation marketing addressed this audience and activities such as placing gaming pods in chillout rooms at venues such as Ministry Of Sound helped reinforce that perception. Nowadays these things are routine, but in 1995 this was revolutionary and pioneering. The decision to target an older audience was a clever move for a couple of reasons. Firstly, people aged between 18 and 25 are known to have the largest disposable income, handy when a console depends upon the multiple purchase of games at £50 a time. Secondly, the kiddy image that Nintendo were unfairly labelled with meant the Famicom was a toy you were supposed to outgrow (though you can be sure a great many number of people never did). By addressing an older audience, Sony not only showed understanding that the market and its core user group had matured, they did more than any other company to make videogames a part of our everyday culture. Rather than being the pursuit of an anti-social child, the PlayStation was seen as a component of a night out. You and your friends returned from the pubs and clubs and rounded off the evening with some multiplayer action. At least, that was the image that Sony was keen to promote: Less of a toy, more of a desirable consumer product that children could aspire to own.

REFERENCES

The Ultimate History of Videogames by Steven L Kent

Revolutionaries At Sony by Reiji Asakura

Edge Magazine