Wednesday, August 23, 2006

The real reason girls don't play games

Via Eurogamer, Sony announces the release of a pink PS2. That's right, it's pink. The Sony brand manager said:

"The Pink PlayStation 2 is funky, fresh, and fashionable, and will further broaden the console’s continuing popularity and relevance with a fun new twist."
Damn! He isn't shy with his f-words is he? Did that make you cringe a little? In my world, he continues on to say:

"For a limited time, the Pink Playstation 2 can also be customized with a fabulous set of bejeweled personal statements such as 'Princess', 'Diva' and 'Take a picture, it lasts longer'."

I'm torn between what's more horrifying. Sony actually coming out with a pink PS2 or the fact that some bratty girl will actually buy one because it's pink. Was gender neutral just not good enough?

3 comments:

Karl Castaneda said...

Actually, Ken, I'm gonna have to side with Sony on this one. While this PR dude is certainly letting buzzwords fly left and right, at the end of the day, it's a good decision. Did you see those pictures of the launch day for the pink DS Lite? It was ridiculous.

Then again, it's probably like that whenever ANY new shipments of DS Lites arrive, so maybe I'm wrong on this one.

Ken said...

That's the thing, I have a feeling they will sell. It makes me throw up a little but hey, where there's a market, there's a seller.

The pink DS makes a little more sense though because you carry those around. You have more opportunities to make a statement and show your personality with that. You're not going to be dragging a PS2 around in your purse or backpack. You'll still make a statement but mostly at home.

Amber said...

I think there are 2 different issues at work within the "girl gamer" issue.

Issue 1 is making games (and game hardware I suppose) that girls will play. The pink PS2 won't do that, any more than making pink M-16s will make girls want to play with guns. If Sony are making it for this reason, it will fail.

Issue 2 is really what the pink PS2 is (to me) about, and that's simply to make *things* that appeal to girls. The pink PS2 won't generally make a girl want to play video games, but some girls who do play video games might want a pink PS2. I don't know if what I'm saying is how Sony is approaching this, but this is how I believe it will work.

If Sony were smart, they'd make skinnable PS2s. I hate myself for admitting it, but I think a pink PS2 is pretty cool. A pink Hello Kitty PS2 would be even cooler. Boys (sweeping generalization in 3...2...1...) might like a camo-skinned PS2, robots, or manga chicks, etc.

Nothing wrong with making things people will want, but Sony will be disappointed if they think it will pull girls in who don't already play games. (iPod socks sell almost as well as iPods, I don't see why it couldn't work for a console.)