Sony Computer Entertainment (SCEI) chief Kazuo Hirai has said that although the platform holder is starting to tap into more casual territory with PS3 after nearly four years on the market, the firm isn’t about to neglect its hardcore gaming audience.
The company’s latest piece of kit, PlayStation Move, will hit stores this September and will be compatible with a host of hardcore games including SOCOM 4, Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition, LittleBigPlanet 2, and 2011’s eagerly awaited Killzone 3. However, the new device also aims to attract more casual audiences with family friendly offerings, including Move Party.
Speaking during an interview with The Telegraph, Hirai commented, “We’ve always believed that whatever it is we’re doing, it’s something that appeals to our core gaming audience first and foremost."
"Then, depending where we are in the lifecycle of the product, how much we need to appeal to the casual and family gaming market varies. When we first launched the PS3 three four ago, the games that were launched along with it were tailored more towards the hard-core gaming audience.”
“Four years into it, we’re still not mid-cycle, but given the base growth we’ve seen – there are upwards of 36 million PS3 consoles sold worldwide right now – we are starting to tap into the casual and light gaming users,” added Hirai.
"But we want to make sure that we have software that appeals those gamers without neglecting the hardcore gaming audience who have always been the real diehard supporters of PS3. That’s the balance we struck in our [E3] keynote press briefing, I think."