While companies like Microsoft, Electronic Arts, Google and Nintendo look to the ocean of indie developers to catch ideas for future users of their subscription systems or services, Sony has chosen to target a hardcore audience for PS5.
If the choice made by the Japanese video game giant has met the favor of the community, the opinion expressed by journalists and industry analysts like those of CCN is quite different.
From the columns of its official website, Harsh Chauhan of CCN explained that “Restricting the PS5 to a niche audience could be a big problem. Video games research provider Newzoo has classified gamers into eight categories. A bird’s eye view of those categories indicates that the majority of gamers don’t fall in the hardcore category that Sony is targeting.”
Going into the details of the data pitted by the analysis of the company, Chauhan pointed out that “Just over a third of the gamers belong to the hardcore category according to Newzoo’s classification. These include those types of gamers who will spend money on hardware, though to varying degrees. For example, only 9% of the gamers are hardware enthusiast who will keep up with the latest machines, while 13% belong to the “ultimate gamer” category that spends all of their money on games.”
With the imminent entry into the video game arena of Google Stadia and the growing success of Nintendo Switch and subscription services such as Xbox Game Pass, according to CCN analysts, the choice made by Sony to focus on the hardcore gamers, thanks to exclusive Triple-A titles with multi-million dollar budgets and agreements with industry majors, it could decree the defeat of PS5 against Xbox Scarlett and on the emerging services in-game streaming.
And you, what do you think of the considerations of CCN and Newzoo’s analysis of the next-gen console of Sony? Tell us in the comments below.