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Wired Blog’s Chris Kohler recently chatted with PSP senior production manager John Koller about the North American PSP price cut, revealing new plans to aggressively target the 13-17 year-old demographic with a campaign titled “Dude, Get Your Own.“
“Most of our registered owners database stats have shown the 13-17 year old consumers far outpacing other groups in terms of purchase. 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 revealed several reasons for the recent $30 price cut: firstly Sony has been able to make some savings on the cost of goods used to manufacture the PSP and wanted to offer this reduction to the consumer, secondly because of the huge success of a limited time $30 price cut last year which saw 110,000 units sold over five days in Wal-Mart stores, and finally because of the new focus on the 13-17 year-old market.
Koller says that the plan is to move these teenage PSP gamers out of their bedrooms and into the open world, noting that much of the PSP’s success with this age group has been because of the ability to take the handheld upstairs while parents are watching TV downstairs.
Sony intends to launch regular new firmware updates with new functionality designed to appeal to the 13-17 demographic, although Koller could not reveal any details.
