Branding
I’ve heard old people use the term “Playstation generation” in conversation before. Sony finally came around to being a name brand in the same vein as Coke or Nike. It really is simple to see too. With everything coming together for Sony with the PS2, people wanted to own one. Not children mind you. Regular every day people within diverse demographics. The Nintendo was for kids, the Playstation would be for everyone else.
That’s what Sony pitched and it worked. Marketing wanted to capture that aging Nintendo market and by the end of the Playstation era, they were getting it. They had shocking campaigns and ads that appealed to the standard demographics and the outliers. It didn’t hurt that the PS2 was also the console where you would probably end up with a game and that would bring out the hype. As the entertainment industry began to balloon up, you could see who was going to stand ahead as the big dog. It was the console that worked for people that had cash to burn. Teens and adults.
Sony marketing firms worked hard to create something different with the Playstation 2. It worked.
You could find many other variables that would answer why the PS2 was such a phenomenon for the games industry. These are just the biggest ones. The PS2 was an amazing system with games a plenty. For being such an amazing system, we’ll miss you.
