The consumer electronics giant, Sony, is hoping to attract more of the female demographic towards gaming with the PlayStation Vita
According to Jim Ryan, the Head of the European division of PlayStation, the next market demographic that could be targeted by the PlayStation brand should be females.
Terming them as the ‘untapped holy grail’ for the industry and its publishers in particular, Mr. Ryan explained how the female audience was now easier to reach with mass media and with games becoming more and more mainstream, it could be the perfect time
to get them on to the gaming bandwagon.
Explaining his point of view, the big man said, “That (female demographic) is obviously the untapped holy grail. We’re hopeful that the rather less intimidating interface possibilities that Vita offers may make that market potentially more accessible.”
Hinting towards content aimed just at the lady gamers he also teased, “Some of the things as yet unrevealed on the content side are exploring that.”
So it seems that Sony are busy looking to tap into that market, which has never fully embraced gaming. However, Mr. Ryan also explained that gamers and ladies need not get their hopes up too high as nothing that was in the ‘works’, i.e. development, would
be seen until the end of 2012 and would only kick off in 2013, more than a year from now.
“You won’t see that so much in 2012, and in 2013 we’ll still be very much at the core of it, but shortly after that a lot of the business strategy will be around targeting a somewhat younger demographic.”
The younger demographic basically means using a more flexible and easy to use interface which will allow that percentage of the population who find getting into the gaming world slightly foreboding, an easier task.
While the complicated interfaces and depth in gaming which usually requires a certain level of understand and skill may not seem daunting to a regular gamer, there are those who are put off by it and Sony seems to want to make that less of a challenge.
The PlayStation Vita will be the tip of the spearhead, as it looks to cater to a wider gaming audience with its expansive list of intuitive features and wide array of games which it hopes will satisfy a larger number of gamers.
Games such as LittleBigPlanet and ModNationRacers, would be at the forefront of such a move yet other games are also in the works and will look to achieve the success that PlayStation Portable title, Locco Rocco achieved so many years ago.
While the specifics have not yet been announced one can only imagine how Sony plan on adding a ‘ladies console’ tag to their brand.
Tags: