Sony on PS3: "It's not what you buy, it's what you're buying into"

SCEA's John Koller tells us why he believes PS3 will draw in more consumers this holiday and why Vita is poised to take off
Sony Computer Entertainment America

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PlayStation 3 is about to enter its seventh holiday shopping season while Sony's new portable, PlayStation Vita, is entering its first holiday. Both platforms have unique challenges and are vying for consumers' dollars in a weakened economy and a highly competitive market.
It's a market in which Xbox 360 has been consistently outselling PS3 in North America, Wii U is about to launch, Vita has been downright struggling to make its mark, and a whole bunch of new tablets are putting pressure on handheld gaming in general.
Figuring out how to best position and market the PS3 and Vita in this atmosphere is no easy task. What strategy will Sony employ? What marketing will be communicated to gamers and newcomers alike? The "Never Stop Playing" marketing slogan continues this fall. It's "really kind of an ethos, kind of a rallying cry for the gaming community," John Koller, vice president of PlayStation Home and handhelds, tells us. But will they be playing primarily on PlayStation?
In this exclusive interview with GamesIndustry International, Koller, who oversees all brand marketing for Sony Computer Entertainment America, talks about the value that consumers are buying into with either PS3 or Vita, and while naysayers don't believe Vita has a chance, Koller remains very confident that the portable will have a big holiday.
Q: How would you describe the state of the PlayStation business going into the holiday season?
John Koller: I guess in a word, exciting. For us, we've known that from a content standpoint, that the year was going to fairly back half heavy, and so we marshaled a lot of our marketing resources for this back half, knowing that this October, November, December window is going to be a heavy time for consumers coming into the market and purchasing both PS3s and Vitas as well as the content associated with them. It may be in larger numbers than we've seen in recent years for this particular window.
I think there are a few factors that are causing that effect. Content availability is one of them, but also how people are purchasing and what they're purchasing. So we're really bullish on the holidays. For us, we look at PS3 at 6, almost 7 years into its life cycle, and still launching content like PlayStation All-Stars or the partnership we have with Ubisoft with Assassin's Creed or even Last of Us and Beyond to come. It's still a really strong content lineup that I think people purchasing PS3 this holiday are going to have to look forward to.

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