johnkoller
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Sony follows Nintendo's steps and starts targeting moms
The Wii has been a huge hit at my house over Thanksgiving. Even my mom loved Wii Sports, and is thinking about buying a system for herself. Absolutely mind-boggling. Sony is eager to capitalize on the burgeoning gaming mom market, and has expanded their newly revitalized advertising campaign to less traditional media sources. A quick visit to marthastewart.com (pictured above) will reveal ads for the PSP with a tagline "Sugarplums aren't the only things dancing in their heads." Whatever that means. This campaign will also run on parenting.com and AOL's Parenting channel.The new campaign is "fairly unique for us," said John Koller, senior marketing manager. Sony plans on going for a more organic advertising approach, avoiding the very teen-oriented animation that defined the PSP's first year and a half. Finally![Via Ad Week]
Zune & its impact on PSP's identity crisis
Rocky Mountain News recently sat down with senior marketing manager and friend John Koller about the current state of the PSP, and how it faces an identity crisis. "We looked at (the PSP)... as a strong portable game system with multifunctional limbs... It's still a gaming system at its heart." The article notes that Sony wanted to highlight the games of the system first and foremost, and with an excellent library of launch games, the gaming critics and community at large embraced the handheld.However, with a lack of consistent high-profile original games for the system, many PSP users demanded the media functions of the system to be up to snuff. With the failure of UMDs, and cumbersome media restrictions, the PSP has failed to reinvent itself as a defining media platform as well: "The PSP consumer has turned out to be a different consumer in many ways than what we have targeted," Koller admits. By focusing on firmware upgrades, the upcoming GPS and camera peripherals, Sony has a chance to redefine itself. Some other highlights of the article include: As mentioned before, Sony is working on a DRM that can deliver video and music to the system. They are considering how to deliver content, whether it be through Connect, or even a third-party service. "Future iterations of the PSP are likely, Koller said, but Sony is counting on the current version to be around for 10 years, much like their consoles. Sony typically releases a new console about every five years, while continuing to support previous models for another five years." While Nintendo will be Sony's direct competitor, Microsoft's upcoming Zune appears to worry Sony. "I am assuming, we are assuming, that the Zune will eventually have game play," Koller predicts. He expects Zune to have "a huge impact" on the industry. [Thanks steve, Via Kotaku]
Joystiq interviews Sony PSP's John Koller
Sony -- the PSP included -- has taken some flak lately with their image and presence in the gaming industry. Some of it seems to be warranted, but the majority can basically be narrowed down to outright fanboyism. I sat down with John Koller, senior product manager for Sony's PSP, to discuss just how successful the PSP really has been and what we can expect in the future for Sony's first real venture into the handheld gaming business.Tell me about the latest firmware update coming to the PSP?What this latest version [2.80 out this Thursday] is going to include is video RSS so you can save video channels to your Memory Stick and also there is going to be an available download of World Tour Soccer. And, of course, we've got the usual security patches included.
