Wired examined some quotes from a few Sony employees behind the reasoning of lowering the cost of the PSP and the planned marketing campaign to promote the handheld console to the 13-17 year old demographic. The planned campaign, titled "Dude, Get Your Own," will succeed last Christmas’ failed "All I Want For Christmas is a PSP" marketing campaign. John Koller, Senior Product Manager for the PSP, said that most of the PSP consumer base ranges between 13-17 years old. "The intend-to-purchase crowd is living mostly in that group as well. We’re looking to expand beyond where we’ve been. PSP started as a device to appeal to 18-34 year-olds, but north of 26-27."
Koller expanded on the reasoning behind the price cut for the PSP. The first reason was that Sony is able to save more money on production costs, which it wanted to relay those savings to the consumer. The second reason is that "Wal-Mart sold 110,000 units in five days on Black Friday [last year] when they dropped the price to $169." Lastly, there is the 13-17 year old advertising campaign. Koller explains that while the "All I Want For Christmas is a PSP" didn’t do well, he said it gave Sony a good idea on how to speak and market products to that demographic. "It was an effort to be able to target that individual in a more quiet manner and not go out and promote it and have it be something that was found. The way it was done is not correct… In the future, we’ll be more clear and transparent to the consumer."
Next, Koller revealed future plans for the PSP. Continual development for the PSP’s various multimedia applications — namely, downloading and playing music and watching movies. First, Sony will be actively developing and releasing "regularly launch" firmware that’ll be strongly directed to the 13-17-market group, but Koller didn’t go into details. On the other hand, Koller said that during the holiday season that "… music shot up substantially," so the aforementioned continued support and development will certainly occur. As for movies, Sony won’t be giving up on the UMD movie format. Some tweaks will be carried out; for example, Sony will be focusing on releasing more action and comedy films for the PSP.
Finally, Koller discussed plans for games on the PSP. Games like God of War and SOCOM will see PSP releases along with a few unnamed titles from third party developers. Koller stated, "We really want to be able to identify ways to set the software apart from console software. Consumers don’t want a mobile version of a game they can play at home."
