SCEA: PSP Will Be Big Revenue Driver
GameDaily BIZ recently sat down with SCEA Senior Marketing Manager, John Koller, to talk about the PSP's recent boost in sales, the lessons they've learned in the handheld business and how it stands today. Here's some of the interview:
GameDaily BIZ: So how do you feel about the progress you've made since entering the portable gaming space?
John Koller: Very strong. It's been a fantastic experience for Sony and SCEA overall. We were to new to the handheld space on the gaming side, and we really carved out a new area. We created a product with the PSP that differentiated significantly from all the other portable products that are available, whether it's the DS on the gaming side or the iPod on the video/music side. Nothing really comes together with all the feature sets that the PSP has... I've been giving my "Knut Rockne speech" for the last six months or so, but this is really going to be a big year for the PSP. That kicked off a few months ago with the price drop campaign, but if we continue through the year with the number of titles that'll be coming out, some of the announcements at E3 and then beyond, some of the things that'll be happening in the fall... The PSP is a fantastic growth platform for SCEA and we look at it as a significant revenue driver for us as we continue through the year and beyond.
BIZ: If you look at the competition, Nintendo has owned this space for such a long time, and with the DS they're outselling the PSP worldwide about 40 million to 20 million units. Do you even think about trying to become number one or are you just happy to be able to carve out a niche for the PSP, considering that in all the previous years competitors (Game Gear, Lynx, etc.) met their demise facing the Game Boy?
JK: We certainly look at the competition and see how they're stacking up and what they're doing, but we have our own strategy in place. And we do look at the DS as a competitor on the gaming side but we also look at what Apple's doing with iPod and what Microsoft's doing with Zune and even what some of the mobile phone companies have been doing with their products, so we can make the PSP that much better. I think where the PSP has the opportunity to gain the most traction over the next few years is really in the teen and younger demographic, which Nintendo traditionally has carved out. We've been targeting the 13- to 17-year-old throughout this whole year and we've seen a significant amount of sales coming from that group. In fact, that's the number one owner group now of PSPs.
Read the full interview here...Source:
GameDaily BIZ