Sony preps the PSP for an assault on the teen market

by Jared Rea { Apr 4th 2007 at 8:25PM }

The PlayStation Portable may not have a Hannah Montana to offer the kids, but that hasn't stopped the 13-17 year old demographic from picking it up in droves. After the horrendous disaster that was the "All I Want For Christmas is a PSP" viral campaign, Sony is doing the smart thing when it comes to appealing to the younger set. They're actually going to market the thing like sane, rational people.

"Dude, Get Your Own" -- in addition to being a marriage of the Dell dude and the back of a Cheez-Its box -- is the name of the new campaign. The Kohler™ sat down with PSP senior product manager John Koller to discuss the new face of the Poospé and how they plan to target the teen market.

Sony is simply not willing to back down with the PSP and the recent (albeit, ridiculously late) price drop and T-Mobile deal keep it a viable option to would-be portable gamers. We only have one request for the new campaign: no more rapping, please.

Tags: psp

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Henry @ Apr 4th 2007 8:46PM

Sony guy: Hmm...we need to appeal to more teens. What do teens say?
Sony guy 2: Uhhh...they say "dude" a lot...
Sony guy: Thats genius!

Patronising c**ts.

2ez @ Apr 4th 2007 8:55PM

lol stupid psp is kiddie

Elatis @ Apr 4th 2007 8:56PM

That's always been Sony's mindset. Trying to convince teens that owning Sony is cool and elite.
The only PSP owners I have seen are 15 year old "gangstas".

I can hardly wait to see their annoying advertising now. Please check the drinking water Sony.

Mike @ Apr 4th 2007 9:12PM

If they want to increase sales in the U.S., they should bring the GPS attatchment here.

Bluebreaker @ Apr 4th 2007 9:20PM

Hey, I wanna be a "cultural object of desire" too! Maybe I should get my own ad campaign started.

AssemblyLineHuman @ Apr 4th 2007 9:26PM

90s.

Chachi @ Apr 4th 2007 9:28PM

They...they ripped off the slogan from a snack cracker box? I guess for any other company that would be kind of confusing.

BPM @ Apr 4th 2007 9:33PM

Dude...

Sony, stop trying such silly marketing ideas, and just market the games themselves.

Frankenstein Black @ Apr 4th 2007 9:35PM

Oh, and Mike #4, Dont forget Skype. A PSP update with Skype would put a dent in cell phone use over night. Why? Because it would be freeeeeeeeeeeee! and ading the PSP camera would give you Skype video calling for, wait for it, freeeeeeeeeeeee!

Joe @ Apr 4th 2007 9:36PM

I'm a teenager and I just bought a DS. One of friends got a PSP for christmas and has gotten very little use out of it.MY DS has gotten over 20hrs of use in the past 3 weeks and I only have 1 game (ff3).

I will admit that the psp has alot of great games (metal gear soild portable ops, loco roco, size matters, ect.) but it doesn't have alot of appeal to people who want portable gaming in the "not priced more than a bloody console" section. The thing that realy puts the nail in the psp coffin is the load times and how easy it is to pirate games of internet.

One last annoance with the psp the lack of a second anolog stick (or lack of devolpers abilty to deal with this). You people already forgot what made the n64 so great games like turok, 007 golden eye both (gasp) only done with one alalog stick.

Joe @ Apr 4th 2007 9:39PM

one last thing about sony teens are to stupid to fall for a dumbed down marketing campaigns. So don't try just tell us why its so great and why i should buy it.

pukeruaB @ Apr 4th 2007 9:49PM

ha ha, good one sony, sell it to those gullible enough to buy it! make it sound "cool" and they'll fall for it eh! baaaaaa sheep!

moosey @ Apr 4th 2007 10:24PM

wow wtf is it with anti sony bullshit here? the psp is a portable home console, with fps's, realistic racing games, fighting games, etc, games that teens/college kids (at least the majority) prefer over phoenix wright, trauma center, cooking mama, spectrobes etc. and yeah teens fall for that "dude" bs, just look at mtv, sony is just capitalizing on it. also, where does it mention cheezits anywhere? cheezits say "get your own box", this campaign says "dude, get your own".

oh and @10, ds games are far easier to pirate, the games can be hosted online due to their small size, and can just be dragged and dropped onto a memory stick, with a psp you must download and install custom firmware, pricey mem sticks, and possibly a newsgroup subscription if you dont use bt/ftp

BPM @ Apr 4th 2007 10:35PM

Moosey, you still need a DS flashcart, and even then, it's kinda tricky. Well, it depends really.

If you have a Slot-2 flashcart (i.e. M3 CompactFlash, M3 SD, M3 miniSD, and M3 Lite) DS ROMs need to be patched so you can run DS code from Slot-2. Plus, you need some way to boot DS mode from Slot-2 (modified firmware or a "pass" device of some sort).
If you have a Slot-1 flash cart (i.e. M3 Simply), nothing needs to be patched, but you lose GBA capabilities.

Generally speaking, it IS easier to pirate DS games. But, due to the limited availability of DS flashcarts (You can't walk into Best Buy, Wal-Mart, etc. and pick one up), less people are likely to pirate DS games.

Whereas PSP piracy just requires a Memory Stick PRO DUO (which you can get pretty much everywhere) and modify the firmware (Which may be a bit tricky to the average player).

Ryuukuro @ Apr 4th 2007 11:06PM

Now if they can just make a game that teenagers want to play that isn't on consoles.

Sony has to work everything that GAMES on their console can do that games the DS can't. So far they've failed. Honestly, they ought to be the winner here but it's like they're just half trying.

T @ Apr 4th 2007 11:29PM

@13: If you are calling out the Anti-Sony BS then allow me to identify you as a member of the Sony Defense Force.

"the psp is a portable home console, with fps's, realistic racing games, fighting games, etc, games that teens/college kids (at least the majority)"

I'm in college. And for every PSP I've seen around here I've seen about 3-4 DS.

I've had PSP owners tell me outright they regretted buying it. And these are the "I play Halo therefore I am hardcore" type of gamers that Sony is supposedly targeting. You know, the ones that don't like the Spectrobes type games.

samfish @ Apr 4th 2007 11:37PM

Oh no! The DS is TEH DOOMED now!

DOOOOOOOOOOooOOOOOOOOO0OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED!

Au @ Apr 4th 2007 11:58PM

Clearly moosey is a sony fanboy that doesn't have a clear grip on reality.

I'm in college too, and between all my game console owning friends, 6 (including me) have DS's, and one has a psp. My friend that has a psp does not use his psp. My friends with DS's, whenever we gather, it's always awesome wifi super mario brothers (even though I don't own the game) or degenerate pictochat sessions (^^:::).

And for your information, they love Cooking Mama, Phoenix Wright, and Trauma Center (we haven't tried spectrobes yet). Sure, they like halo and gears of war and stuff like that too, but that doesn't mean games that are different from those categories aren't just as appealing. In fact, only a stupid fanboy or a pretentious idiot would be blind enough not to enjoy other games (of which those types of people are unfortunatly far too common).

Non-biter @ Apr 5th 2007 12:12AM

Sony is GANSTA! Ninty aint got nothin' on PSP yo! The DS is gay man! Word, I be seeing like 20,000 PSP's everyday at snack time right before we go to gym. Yo man bringing a DS to my school will get you punched in the face and then some! We also dont fuck with the Wii where I rest at. I heard some catz went missing, they were never heard from again and thats on my mom B. Sony is not to be played with. I'm out!

David @ Apr 5th 2007 12:21AM

Well, to reach the teen market, it's a good start for FINALLY offering the PSP at the price japanese have been paying since launch day!! (or almost that price)

Ian Von Porter @ Apr 5th 2007 1:04AM

The PSP is the most viable handheld competitor to the nintendo dominance. Its like saying Apple OS is a piece of crap because Windoze outsells it 19 to 1.

Seedy @ Apr 5th 2007 7:10AM

Well, teenagers are stupid so they'll probably buy it anyway. Unless they're actually into playing games of course.

Freelance @ Apr 5th 2007 8:23AM

The funny thing is I just see teenagers walking around holding it so you can see they got one. If they have their DS in their hand then they are playing it. If they are not playing it then its in their bags or whatever!

Yoshi Likes Boys @ Apr 5th 2007 9:38AM

Why do people hate on the PSP so badly? Is it because you're still stuck on the ZOMG WHAT A THREAT SONY WANTS TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD shit? PSP is the #3 portable console behind the Nintendo juggernaut one-two punch, and plenty successful. Just becaues the DS is practically assured of being in the short list of most successful ventures all time and an absolute lock for must-have gaming, doesn't make the PSP unsuccessful at what it does.

There was a time right after the release when developers were really struggl-ING to figure out what the market wanted from them, with console-level PS2 ports that were overly complex and not all that fun. HOWEVER, Capcom and Konami in particular figured it out right quick, and put out some stellar old-school titles like the two Megaman games, Ghosts'n'Goblins, shooter compilations, and so on, the RPG flood on the PSP is just STARTING to pick up steam. Then there's Loco Roco. There's a lot to love on the PSP, so if we could just get over this, declare Nintendo the hands-down winner, and appreciate it based on what it brings to the table, we'd save a lot of time.

/Yoshi

sheppy @ Apr 5th 2007 10:22AM

Yoshi, I agree with you.

Honestly, the PSP hate is getting pretty sad around here. If someone is claiming "my psp just collects dust and junk because I regret buying it and it sucks with no games" then this person is too busy trying to convince themselves that Nintendogs is an innovative game and NOT Tamagotchi 3.0.

Over the past year, majority of the complaints to the console have been directly combatted. Just console ports? Horseshit. Nothing I can't get on a console? Well, aside from bringing back a railshooter (Afterburner), PSP has been representing several genres that have been noticably absent in the US market for far too long (Military SRPG) and even some that are coming stateside for the first time (In under a month, PSP gets the first localized dating sim). Atlus, Xseed, NIS, Mastiff, and even Sony has been showing PSP much love and if you cannot find something to play on a console like PSP, you are a moron. I can buy "not worth buying a console for" but if they already have the console, no excuses.

And oh yeah, this Sony Defense Force shit is LAME. It's just as lame as the Wii60 movement (something both Nintendo and Microsoft have publically bashed). Why don't we just dust off the O ROLY and Chuck Norris jokes while we're at it?

Ken @ Apr 5th 2007 12:10PM

The PSP is NOT a great console. Not even a great handheld.

Ignorance is bliss I suppose.

DS > PSP.

Case closed. PSP will never catch up. Sell your PSP now, and buy a DS. It's cheaper, and alot better.

Seedy @ Apr 5th 2007 12:28PM

Ahh now don't be silly. We don't hate the PSP. We just acknowledge it for what it is.

Yoshi Likes Boys @ Apr 5th 2007 12:58PM

Ken: I think you're missing the point. I have a DS, AND a PSP, and find a lot to like about both of them.

Yoshi Likes Boys @ Apr 5th 2007 12:58PM

Ken: I think you're missing the point. I have a DS, AND a PSP, and find a lot to like about both of them.

Yoshi Likes Boys @ Apr 5th 2007 12:58PM

Ack, double postage! A million space pardons.

Ken @ Apr 5th 2007 1:30PM

Yeah, you're right. For what it does, it's definitely worth the money over and iPod if you ask me.

sheppy @ Apr 5th 2007 2:19PM

Tell you what, Ken. If you can find me DS games that match the following games, I will readily admit PSP is not a great console. But the world is filled with different folks and likewise, different strokes, so I look forward to your laughable response.

DJ Max Portable series
LocoRoco
Wipeout Pure
Hot Shots Golf: Open Tee
MGS: Portable Ops
Generation of Chaos
Konami Shooter collections (Salamander, Twin Bee, Gradius, Parodus)
Diner Dash
Brooktown High
Platypus

And this list ignores several other up and coming games which look great like Innocent Life, Jeanne D'Arc, and Disgaea Portable (multiplayer Disgaea?!? Sign my ass up!). Don't worry, those last three, you don't have to worry about. After all, I know there is no rebuttal possible for Harvest Moon in the future.