If you are like me, then you were not one of the lucky individuals who flew out to Las Vegas for Sony’s biggest accomplishment of the year hands down. Like me, you probably watched the world’s first Playstation Experience online and saw some pretty amazing things. Sony has pulled of an amazing task; other than the simple fact that the PlayStation 4 has owned the current gen with console sales, Sony was able to dominate the early December news cycle so incredibly easily. The PlayStation Experience was a huge success over all, made up of what felt like a mix of E3 and PAX. Now that the dust has settled, it’s easier to see what Sony wanted to accomplish and the true value of this event. This was one single event, that didn’t feel like it was put together over the weekend, and was the best pieces of marketing any console manufacturer could hope for! It had just enough “big news” to make up for its strange timing and the fact that so many industry people and press flew out to Las Vegas to attend shows how well planned the event had been.
It has been long enough that there are plenty of other articles out there telling all of the news that was shown during the event, so I won’t bother you with repeating what others have already said, although you should catch up if you hadn’t been following along at home. In my opinion what’s so incredible about this move is how clearly and easily Sony was able to grab the news cycle in the days leading up to the event and over the weekend.
Gamers and their families will still be crazy about the games they haven’t had time to go through or the cash to get yet, the big rush of the holiday will still fuel retail sales without a doubt. The really amazing thing is what the PlayStation Experience did, and its true value in a new part of the system’s hype-cycle, was to justify everybody’s purchase while pushing the ones on the fence towards the PlayStation 4.
It is very rare for any events of this size to take place during December, but the real value of all that hype when there are so many consumers out looking at which system to buy for their home during the holidays can’t be overstated. If you were or are one of those individuals wondering which system to pick up, and Sony is dominating the news with big announcements and trailers, the decision may have been made a whole lot easier on you.
Microsoft has really started to play ball this gen after ditching the Kinect and are now beginning to offer some great deals for their consumers in terms of bundles. The Xbox One is actually less expensive currently than the PlayStation 4 in some situations, and that seems to have put Sony in a great position. If their sales remain strong, why would they need to drop the price? If sales need to be goosed, then they know where they need to go with price to make it a fair fight.
By leaning heavily on the brand’s past, even going as far as releasing a stunning new edition of the PlayStation 4 that looks like the the first ever PlayStation, and really focusing on what’s in store for us in 2015 on both the PlayStation 4 and Vita, Sony has rekindled our enthusiasm for the product and its future all without dropping the price directly. Sony has given the players new reasons to get excited for its platform during what might just be the biggest shopping month of the entire year for consoles.
After the event Microsoft now has to fight back against Sony’s very strong start this generation and they’ve done that so far. Sony’s reaction will be in celebration, and that’s a powerful statement during what is normally a very brutal pricing and content war this close to the end of the year. The PlayStation Experience was a huge success in every way possible, but I fear that this brilliant play will only work once; come this time next year we can probably expect everyone to attempt this same marketing and promotional ploy.
That’s a worry for another day though, as Sony may have already locked down Christmas this year weeks before the presents are put under the tree.