Sony wants to attract Nintendo Wii owners to PlayStation 4

One of the things that Nintendo has consistently failed to do so far is to make owners of its previous-generation Wii game console to buy its new-generation Wii U system. Apparently, Sony Computer Entertainment thinks that it can persuade customers of its rival to get its PlayStation 4 instead of anything else. In order to attract their attention the company is even willing to revive some of its older franchises or just re-master certain previous-gen titles.

Nintendo Wii was the best-selling game console of the previous generation video game systems. Nintendo has sold over 100 million units of Wii, which means that there are over a hundred of million of gamers, who may be interested in trying something new, a big opportunity for console developers.

“Our big opportunity is to welcome back an audience much earlier in the lifecycle that possibly bought into the Wii previously,” said Andrew House, the president of Sony Computer Entertainment, in an interview with Eurogamer.

Unfortunately, the problem for Sony or Microsoft Corp. (if it also wants to address owners of Nintendo Wii) here is that those gamers (who got Wii in 2006 – 2012) are not core gamers, who buy the latest and greatest systems, but casual gamers, who just want simple games, great entertainment and moderate prices. The head of SCE believes that thanks to the fact that the PlayStation 4 is a universal gaming and entertainment machine, it can be purchased by the Wii audience.

“Whether it's based on this is a really good all-round entertainment device for a family in addition to having great games, our consumer data suggests some of those people are already coming in now and that's what's contributing to the really great sales we've had,” said Mr. House.

The president of SCE believes that there are also PlayStation gamers who skipped the PS3 and did not play the games designed for it because they purchased Nintendo’s Wii. He thinks that re-mastering those titles or offering new versions of good-old franchises will help to bring those people back to the PlayStation.

“I hesitate to say this because I know committed gamers may roll their eyes about it, but there's an opportunity with some of the re-mastering or re-imagining from PS3 franchises that will potentially find an audience that hasn't played them in the previous generation because they skipped that generation,” said Mr. House. “We're starting to see signs of that. That bodes well for us as a platform, but it bodes well for developers and publishers as well. I've always looked with envy at the movie industry about what a great job they're able to do with taking content and making it work. Disney is the best example of this, right, of taking classic content and reintroducing it to audiences over time.”

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KitGuru Says: While the movie industry does bring old content back quite often, it does not mean that all the re-makes become successful. For example, Warner Bros. could-not re-launch the Superman franchise in the mid-2000s.

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