Clearly the greatest thing to come out of the UK is our very own Editor-in-Chief (and professional lion wrangler), Sebastian Moss. But the UK is also where Sony had a very good 2012, with them going “from the No. 3 to No.1 console manufacturer,” and claiming “over a third” of the handheld market.
This news comes from an interview on MCV where they sat down with Fergal Gara, Murray Pannell, and Alex Coultate from SCE UK, where they also asked whether they were disappointed by Wonderbook’s sales:
Gara: It could have sold better, but it sold respectively well. I am encouraged that we have more titles coming and it may just take a little longer to get it to settle in consumer’s consciousness.
It was also relatively expensive if you didn’t already have a PlayStation 3 or a Move controller. But I think as people learn it’s about more titles, then that would give it some added momentum.
Pannell: From a marketing perspective, Wonderbook was an important step in becoming more family-focused as a platform. That is not an easy job to do and can take years to achieve.
Since Wonderbook was, for all intents and purposes, their biggest title of the Holiday period, Gara noted that “we certainly felt the lack of a big triple-A title” and “our timing of releases wasn’t quite ideal last Christmas.”
When asked if we’ll see a focus on core games in 2013, Pannell said, “There is a range of Wonderbook titles coming and the Essentials range. We’ve got games like Rain and Puppeteer that have broad appeal. You underestimate the more accessible content we have coming.” Gara then added in, “And more that still hasn’t been announced.”
As the subject flipped over to the PlayStation Vita, Fergal mentioned that there was a “pre-Christmas where sales were quite low,” but that they “absolutely exploded 20-fold from that low-point into the peak of Christmas.” Addressing the lack of PlayStation Vita titles in 2013, Gara continued by saying “it looks bare in terms of what is announced. The cupboard won’t be bare.”
Based on all of their comments it sounds like both the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 3 will have some good, unannounced games coming our way by year’s end.
What do you hope Sony has under their hat for 2013? Let us know in the comments below.
