Sony a Hit With PlayStation Home

Sony’s gamer-targeted virtual world PlayStation Home has reached a new audience milestone, having been downloaded by 5 million users since going live back in December, said officials—2.2 million of which reside in the U.S. and Canada. But don’t expect the avatar playground to become flooded with ads anytime soon, according to Jack Buser, director of PlayStation Home, Sony Computer Entertainment America.Speaking during a keynote interview on Wednesday (Mar. 11) at the Engage! Expo in New York, Buser said that while many users feared that Sony would launch Home and “come in and stick ads everywhere”--that has not been the case. “Absolutely not.”Buser claimed that among potential advertisers, Home is generating “a tremendous amount of interest,” he said. “More interest than we can execute on.” But the company is being deliberately selective, working with brands that resonate with the core young male console gamer audience and willing to commit to create content for the world that is regularly refreshed. “Brands need credibility with this audience,” he said. “They need to provide value...you have to really be prepared to engage with this community.”Buser cited the example of Sony partner Red Bull, which has built games in the world such as the Red Bull Air Race and has also placed a virtual version of its products in Home. “You have people [in Home] pretending to serve Red Bull,” said Buser. “That kind of engagement is almost unheard of in this day and age.”The still-in-beta Home allows users to create personalized avatars—i.e. videogame-like representations of themselves—decorating virtual homes and exploring virtual landscapes, all of which socialize with other PS3 users. Buser said that the service, which is free to PS3 owners, serves as a major differentiator for the console, which competes in a heated landscape that includes Xbox 360 and the red-hot Nintendo Wii.Though still technically in beta, Home is proving to be highly engaging, claims Buser. While Sony doesn’t provide monthly audience reach for the world, Buser said most users have been averaging up to 50 minutes per visit.The plan going forward is to add more and more content to Home, ranging from mini games to social-video viewing opportunities. “That’s what we’re laser-focused on right now,” said Buser. “The gaming community has a voracious appetite for content. We want to provide them as much content as quickly as we can.”

Performance Marketing

Sony a Hit With PlayStation Home

Mike Shields

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