Cute Bundles
It's no surprise that game companies want to try and appeal to every demographic, girls included. The thing is that most publishers don't really know what this, merely trying to feed them shovelware that appeals to their supposedly "cute" sensibilities. Now, Sony is trying to get into the mix with a special bundle including Hannah Montana: Rock Out the Show on UMD, and a bunch of other goodies that the girl gamer. Because, like, Girlz Play Too and stuff!
Yeah, I don't even...what? To say Sony's marketing team is merely misguided is to be a little easy to them. Honestly, this is pretty embarrassing. Needless to say, I don't think this will actually work out the way they think it will, especially the website. (Though I do applaud its efforts to sell Loco Roco and Patapon.) I do like the Lilac PSP, though that probably says more about me Interestingly, Korea and Hong Kong are also getting bundles for this PSP, though with a different game.
It will come bundled with Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny, and apparently appeals to people who like Ivy since she's the centerpiece. I like this bundle more than the Hannah Montana one, but I like Soul Calibur, so that makes me biased. I'm not sure what the demographics of those two countries like, so I'm not sure if this is genius or insanity at work. So uh, here's to you Sony of Hong Kong and Korea.
Yeah, I don't even...what? To say Sony's marketing team is merely misguided is to be a little easy to them. Honestly, this is pretty embarrassing. Needless to say, I don't think this will actually work out the way they think it will, especially the website. (Though I do applaud its efforts to sell Loco Roco and Patapon.) I do like the Lilac PSP, though that probably says more about me Interestingly, Korea and Hong Kong are also getting bundles for this PSP, though with a different game.It will come bundled with Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny, and apparently appeals to people who like Ivy since she's the centerpiece. I like this bundle more than the Hannah Montana one, but I like Soul Calibur, so that makes me biased. I'm not sure what the demographics of those two countries like, so I'm not sure if this is genius or insanity at work. So uh, here's to you Sony of Hong Kong and Korea.
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I can't help but feel slightly mortified by the presentation and language behind this website.
Not sure I like the suggested idea of female gamers being so flippant and ditzy, not to mention the fact that the language is completely irrelevant to the product.
Fine make a purple PSP bundle and put it out there, but it really doesn't need to be so transparently sickly.
Yup, that was why I pointed it out, because of how silly it is. I don't believe how they went about this, but then again, that's current-gen Sony in a nutshell. "Reality? What's that?"
That makes the Broken Destiny one better on principle. At least it shows some ingenuity, bizarre as it may be.
*Points above.* I agree with Michelle. I wanted to do a post about this when I learned of it last week, but you know what my life's been like lately...
Anyway, I took the character test for kicks and it was the most painful thing I've done in a while. The entire thing was skewed toward the said ditzy, OMG! so awesome thinking teen girls. I wasn't like that as a teen, so I couldn't relate at all. I'm not saying girls like that don't play video games, but Sony's campaign misses the mark completely. Then again, this is what Sony has become.
Additionally, it's just laughable. First they bash Nintendo saying only real winners play cool Sony products, then they attempt this. Geez. If they were to target women gamers I'd hate to see what that campaign would look like.
Now I'm reminded of hearing a story on NPR a few years back about a grandma who passed the time in the Nursing home by playing RPGs, Final Fantasy VII was her favorite game. Er, the point being that Sony shouldn't have to appeal to the lowest common denominator in a target group to push its products. If there is awareness and the games are good (and not insanely priced) most people will come to the product.
You mean how much fun your life has been? ;)
I took the character test too, though I'm not of the "girlz" variety. I'd like to know who sat at the table at the meeting for how they were going to market this, and see the guy who stood up and said "Gee golly, I've got it!" and suggested this. If they were targeting women, I'd bet they'd either use Tomb Raider or make a Heavenly Sword game for PSP and bundle it with that. It would definitely be more tolerable if they have a clu...oh wait, I forgot who I was talking about.
Speaking of RPGs and the elderly, I remember a few former Nintendo customer service reps saying that the original Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest was very popular with older people. That wasn't only because of how much time could be spent with the game, but also that it didn't require too much use of their reflexes. So yeah, I think both of those would be good marketing for RPGs, especially for Dragon Quest (because it needs it, and not another "look at how much this game sold in Japan WOOOOT" thing).