PS4 must broaden to capture casual audience

PlayStation’s UK boss Fergal Gara has said that the next stage in PS4’s development should see the hardware broaden its audience to attract amore casual crowd.

We want to see in the next year or two is a bigger mass market play, shall we say,” Gara told Redbull.com. So in order to broaden and perhaps fill the void that’s being left latent by, say, the Wii – which is a shadow of its former self – we need to have the kind of product that will engage that more casual consumer.

I think that’s a big opportunity for us, and that’s not yet clear on the horizon, but something we should and I’m sure will be focused on as we look forward into year two, three and four.”

This strategy is nothing new for Sony, of course. In the latter stages of PS2’s lifespan, by which time it was owned by more or less every serious gamer, the company did a fantastic job of reinventing the machine as a mass-market device with titles such as SingStar and Buzz helping to establish it as a living room entertainment hub.

This success was reflected by publishers, too, who often dedicated their child-orientated and often licensed movie titles to the machine.

Gara went on to reiterate how pleased Sony has been with PS4’s early success.

It has been amazing,” he added. To see a console be accepted and adopted far faster than any other console we’ve brought out is fantastic. The fact that it’s such a global success, but also – of course – the success here in the UK makes us particularly pleased.

We’re up and running with a very strong start and gamers seem to be very pleased with the device.”