Sony says PS4 is targeting lapsed Wii owners

PS4 may have enjoyed big popularity with core gamers, but Sony says the machine is also successfully targeting the Wii generation.

"Our big opportunity is to welcome back an audience much earlier in the lifecycle that possibly bought into the Wii previously," Sony Computer Entertainment boss Andrew House told Eurogamer.

"Whether it’s based on this is a really good all-round entertainment device for a family in addition to having great games, our consumer data suggests some of those people are already coming in now and that’s what’s contributing to the really great sales we’ve had.

Anecdotally I’ve had people who were the Wii generation and who are back in the consideration set. It’s certainly something I hear about."

House then echoed the sentiments of PlayStation’s American VP of marketing John Koller who said in June that a third of PS4 owners have migrated from rival platforms – which SCEE product manager Josh Walker told MCV is one of the reasons why the platform holder is keen to remaster PS3 titles that such as audience will have previously missed.

"I hesitate to say this because I know committed gamers may roll their eyes about it, but there’s an opportunity with some of the remastering or re-imagining from PS3 franchises that will potentially find an audience that hasn’t played them in the previous generation because they skipped that generation," House added.

"That bodes well for us as a platform, but it bodes well for developers and publishers as well. I’ve always looked with envy at the movie industry about what a great job they’re able to do with taking content and making it work.

"We as an industry haven’t done that historically. We’re only just getting into our stride with people who now have been playing for 10, 20 years, who have a nostalgia factor, who want to see those franchises come back and be reinvented.”