Sony Wants More Women Interested in PS4

[oreso]

You have games like Bayonetta where the protagonist is a cool female and the game is just badass. But the protagonists are often so sexualized (Like Bayonetta removing her "clothes" when she does an ultimate combo move). Like they said, you don't ever see Kratos go all "JACKING OFF NOW!" when he performs a brutal kill or something. (The sex minigame doesn't count; that's just fan service and still degrades women).

So a topless sexually-active man is still LESS sexualised than a character who spends most of the time clothed head-to-foot and isn't sexually-active at all?

Bayonetta is sexualised, for sure. But I'm struggling to think of how we could possibly portray a man to be more sexualised
than Kratos is. Get rid of his skirt so he's left with just his jock strap?

I'm thinking the field is a little unbalanced before we even start to play here: women are considered sexualised in far more situations, poses and states of undress than men are.

Try it: Put a woman in EXACTLY Kratos' position. A topless woman, grunting and flailing some bondage chains around while murdarating and/or screwing half of Greece. You telling me that wouldn't be considered sexualised?

 

[CrazyCapnMorgan]

On a side note: I wonder how well Nintendo sold the pink GBA, DS and currently selling the pink 3DS, and what percentage of those buyers were female compared to the other colors.

Well, if it's any consolation, I'm a guy and I bought both a DS and 3DS XL in pink versions. Female gamers I've come across said it looks cute and those with kids occasionally replied that their daughters would probably like it, as well.

Although if Japan wasn't such a tightwad about regional things, I would've bought a Charizard 3DS XL. *mumbles angrily under breath*

 

[___________________]

Put a credit card and some pink bows on it.

 

[mfeff]

"We are not going down the route of making the console pink of course," said House.

Cool Story Bro... hasn't stopped ya' before...

Does the controller on the PS4 vibrate? if it does, give it an option to keep it on. might help XD

hahahaha this option alone may account for the literal explosion of mobile devices.... genius! =D

 

[Mr Mystery Guest]

I see horse riding simulators, more Sim's, and a plat-former about a princess running around a palace collecting dresses.

 

[KelDG]

On a side note: I wonder how well Nintendo sold the pink GBA, DS and currently selling the pink 3DS, and what percentage of those buyers were female compared to the other colors.

My wife wanted a DS, but only the Pink one (she owned a MegaDrive / PS1 and PS2 before then so quite a gamer). My brothers wife also wanted a Pink DS, she had never gamed before. My mates wife at work also had a pink DS and I would say I have seen more women on public transport with a pink DS than any other colour. Not really a huge cross section of female gamers but still.

I think they would do quite well to sell a pink PS3, I mean, who doesn't want more choice.

 

[Evilpigeon]

I think people are missing something here, yes there are plenty of girls who like the sorts of games currently available but when it comes to the full on, sit down experiences currently available on consoles or pcs they are in the minority. There's a reason for this and you aren't going to entice those who aren't currently playing to buy your games by making more of the same, only better.

There are significant thematic gaps that can be found in AAA gaming that you don't see in other mediums. The easiest indicator of this is the prevalence of violence as a central mechanic in gaming. I'd like to hope that what Sony means by this is that they're going to be looking into ways of bringing the budget and design quality you find in the best of major FPSs to a wider array of genres.

 

[Wargamer]

Sony, this really isn't hard; if you want to appeal to women, you just need to appeal to everyone.

If your market research is finding that most women don't enjoy your endless dirge of spunkgargleweewee, then perhaps you can win them over with other types of games! Best of all, if you do start producing epics like Colony Wars again, you'll not only win over all the women out there longing for some epic 3D space shooter action, but all the men looking for it as well!

Or how about the guys and gals who love Survival Horror? Real survival horror, not "lol go shoot zombies and stuff with these infinite ammo miniguns" that passes for survival horror these days. Make real Survival Horror, and they will buy it.

Make platformers. Make puzzle games. Make RPGs, make RTS (maaaybe not a good idea, but no guts no glory!). Make anything but yet more spunkgargle-fucking-weewee games! Real is not brown, and real is not a Gods-damned sausage fest! Believe it or not, even some male gamers appreciate a bit of variation in gender. It doesn't matter if I want to play a woman because I am a woman and I relate to a female lead better, or I feel her gender helps make the emotional subtext of the game more poignant, or I just want to spend twelve hours of staring at a woman's perky ass. If you make it, and make it well, they will come. That applies to both genders.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Well at least the moves Sony is pulling are there to appeal to more people. AAA, casual, indie and girls.
Unlike Microsoft who wants to appeal to masochists only.

Yes, it sounds nice. It would be cool if they had more women leading the actual design and concept portions of development. Portal was conceived by a woman and that's one of the very best games from this gen and perhaps all time. Unfortunately Sony's good intentions usually lead to a lot of facepalming in the end. It will be entertaining to see how they screw it up.
More and more, they're starting to look like political parties: Sony is like the Democrats with a lot of nice ideas that they have no intention of properly following through with and MS is like the GOP who just have screwed up ideas and demean you if you don't agree with them. As for Nintendo, I guess they're kind of like the Green party: entertaining but nobody takes them too seriously.

 

[newwiseman]

Sony isn't worried about the women gamers it already attracts, to play the games it's already churning out. What they want is to attract new woman gamers by somehow getting more women involved in the industry.


I suspect this is actually because a recent study found that 30% of Japanese men under 40 have never dated and of those that have 70% met their partners in school (HS and College) and 20% met them in the workplace. /troll

 

[Phasmal]

Bayonetta is sexualised, for sure. But I'm struggling to think of how we could possibly portray a man to be more sexualised
than Kratos is. Get rid of his skirt so he's left with just his jock strap?

Bayonetta is designed to look good to straight males.
Kratos is designed to look good to straight males.
Kratos is a power fantasy, NOT a sexual fantasy.

Seriously, what guy looks at Kratos, and goes `Oh yeah that's totally pandering for the ladies`?

OT: I think the industry and the community both have long ways to go before this is a really `woman-friendly` hobby, but it's good to know that people in the industry want to try.

 

[Sacman]

Well, you can;t exactly accuse Sony of not trying... especially when they released Rez, and it's special controller...<.<

 

[Carrots_macduff]

How are people seeing this as a bad thing? It's no secret that most gamers are male, and most big budget games are marketed towards males, i.e. lack of female protagonists, box art featuring man posing with gun(s) etc.

and to the ladies who are already Playstation owners, surely you must realize that you might be an exception among your sex in terms of your taste in games/media/hobbies or whatever, much like I am as a male who couldn't care less about shooters with silent male protagonists.

So how can it be bad to acknowledge that in some cases, men and women like different things.

 

[Requia]

Much of the research I've read indicates that women are usually more attracted to "casual" games [ducks to avoid the lamp I expect to be thrown at my head for saying that]

There's a reason I didn't say it.

 

[omicron1]

Welllp... All the extra focus on hardware, ease of use, and memory certainly got MY attention.

Seriously, Sony, I don't think you have anything to worry about. Especially since MS is clearly aiming at the frat-boy crowd...

 

[IndomitableSam]

Make it cheaper and I'll buy it. It's the only system for the last generation I didn't own, so maybe make it affordable. I refused to buy it on the price tag alone. There are probably a dozen games I'd like to lay on the console, but I simply won't pay that much money. It was a choice between that and the 360, and the 360's library won.

Also, Sony? Fuck you. You want to make it more marketable towards women? Stop making it a big deal in media and you know, hire some women and don't even make a fucking joke about 'pink consoles'. That's not okay.

 

[A Weakgeek]

I'm going to ask an honest question here.

Do men and women really like the same things?

Think about books and movies. In my opinion its quite obvious most of the time which gender a movie or a book is targeted towards. If I go see a romantic drama/comedy, how many men do I see in the theater who aren't with their girlfriend? If I go see the new Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, how many women do I see who haven't been dragged in by their boyfriends? Not many at all.

With bookworms/film fanatics/gamers these distinctions matter much less, but it has a huge effect towards the casual audience.

This doesn't mean we should start making rash segregations obviously. It just means that maybe we should try and experiement with new genres, or excisting ones which haven't been explored for their full potential.

 

[Xarathox]

"We are not going down the route of making the console pink of course," said House.

Cool Story Bro... hasn't stopped ya' before...

Does the controller on the PS4 vibrate? if it does, give it an option to keep it on. might help XD

hahahaha this option alone may account for the literal explosion of mobile devices.... genius! =D

Nobody remembers Rez, and it's Trance Vibrator? There's no way in hell that wasn't specifically designed to be anything but a goddamn sex toy for someones girlfriend to get them "into" gaming.

OT: I'm getting sick of all these companies forcibly trying to draw in women with the rhetoric they keep spewing. The concept is stupendously easy... just make a good product and people (including women who are interested) will buy it.

 

[littlewisp]

I can't shake the feeling like they're approaching this as if women are an exotic alien species. Maybe that's unfair to them, I don't know, but that's how I feel. All I know is if you broaden the appeal with different types of game styles and protagonists (please don't take that pink comment and then start offering poorly done dating sims and fruit-scented shovelware as an attempt to lure in the ovaries) you'll broaden the audience interested to begin with. Right?

. . .though I will say that romance options never hurt.

(WHAT, I say that as a lovecraft/mieville/abercrombie fan, too!)

 

[generalceles]

I hope they have a more targeted marketing strategy than "paint it pink", because if they do something stupid I swear I'm taking this money I've already saved for a PS4 and blowing it on a new graphics card. Maybe they could, oh, I don't know, talk to women who don't game and find out why.