In an interview with Spanish gaming site 3DJuegos, SCEE’s James Armstrong talks about the PlayStation 3’s successor.
It’s all been translated via Google, so it’s a little tricky to pull out accurate soundbites, but it does seem like Sony is planning on something a little less hardcore for the next console.
“How do you imagine the next generation of consoles? Is it better graphics, new control interfaces, or both at once?” asks the site. “It’s hard to say right now,” says Armstrong in reply. “I do not think we’ll have a console with much better graphics than the PS3 currently offers. I believe the future will be to provide consumers with better experiences and [be] more accessible.”
“The aim will be to make more people enter the world of video games and try to design titles for women.”
Armstrong says that market research shows that it’s mostly boys that enjoy PlayStation – there are no games for girls.
“We [will] try to snag the games,” he says. “If we are an industry that has a product primarily intended for men, we are actually selling for 50% of what we could sell. So if we can make games for women would have a larger business and interesting. I think it’s important.”
We’d love to see a proper translation of this if any of our readers are Spanish.
Tuffcub
How incredibly sexist.
Women fix cars, hunt taliban and as demonstrated by the remarkably fit lass outside my window, work as a builders.
Precisely why would they want games about ponies? Of course some ladies may like that kind of thing but to generalise like that is terrible, that’s like saying all men like violent FPS’s.
Kled
Hey TC, I’ve translated the original text, where should I send it so you can post it?
Forrest_01
Personally, I think that this statement is a little bit sexist & a bit nonsensical – It could simply be down to the translation though.
There are plenty of ladies out there who like to kick back with a game or two & I personally know a few that absolutely kick bottom at things like CoD & Battlefield on a regular basis. Nothing wrong with that. The wife also likes to game, although she generally prefers driving games & god games – The former there is an abundance of at the mo, but this gen hasn’t actually seen much in the way of the latter. PC’s tend to cater to that sort of thing better though.
Also, I am not sure who analyses their statistics, but they seem to be missing something – Granted, you may be missing out on a certain percentage of the market by not marketing games specifically for the females of the species (although I doubt it’s anything like 50%), but the fact of the matter is that you won’t make the situation better by creating games specifically for the ladies, as there is a strong possibility that the core who play the games that you release now aren’t likely to buy them.
As I say though, could be down to the translation.
gazzagb
I hope “more accessible” doesn’t mean more ‘casual’ games like dancing and fitness ones. Most girl games I know like the hardcore games, not the casual ones.
Paranoimia
As long as they do it sensibly, i.e. along the same lines as Move. That is, use motion control where it benefits the game, and don’t try to shoe-horn it in where it doesn’t belong, as Microsoft are doing with Kinect.
I still can’t believe that MS basically sped past all their ‘big’ games at E3 and focused almost entirely on Kinect shovelware. I recently told someone that I’ll have a PlayStation product under my TV for as long as Sony make them, but if they go the Microsoft route with PS4 (that is, sell out to completely unnecessary motion control and force it into every game), I may need to rethink that.
jimmy-google
My wife loves the ps3 (and her psp) but most of the games she plays have been Disney (Hannah Montana, Toy Story 3 etc) or Logo (Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean) plus a little Modnation Racers. She’s keen to play Uncharted due to the story and some point and clicks but the majority of games just aren’t for her. She’d rather look at friends pics on facebook.
Bizarely she did enjoy play co-op Haze.
Crisz
Oh god i hope not. I hope they make a powerfull ps4 that can compete with todays best home computers!
E8_BALL_
the firmware update, that added descriptions to xmb settings, eg.
game settings – adjust settings for games & video settings – adjust settings for video, is a little less hardcore as i want things to get. What’s next, the new agent 47 can see through walls, oh wait he can. (unless played on high difficulty, relief.) I like many others started gaming before my teens & didn’t need my hand held through games & menus.
BioEye
Since when did working on a new console become an excuse to not aiming games at the female market anyway?
‘Oh, yeah, we can’t aim our games at girls until the PS4, because, you know…’
Foxhound_Solid
Make it, day one..
BrainDiver
I would much prefer better graphics over all that crap, tbh. Just port farmville/facebook functionality to PS3 and that’s pretty much every girl I know sold.