The Last of Us, God of War: Ascension, Beyond: Two Souls and other “core” PlayStation 3 titles aren’t due out until 2013. Because of this, you may have noticed that 2012 will be pretty barren for the PlayStation 3 and its core demographic. Instead, the titles that are coming are of the more “family-friendly” variety.
According to Shuhei Yoshida of Sony, this is because the PlayStation brand has been neglecting this group of game players. This year we’ll see games like Sky Cooper: Thieves in Time and PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale take center stage.
“We’d love to have multi-million sellers for the holiday. But each title needs time to develop, especially a new IP like The Last of Us,” Yoshida explained in an interview in the latest print edition of Game Informer Magazine.
“Our strategy for Christmas is to go big on family-friendly titles. This is a neglected genre for the PlayStation 3, but as it matures, I think it’s really important to have these games on the platform. I think we have a great lineup this holiday to complement third parties’ big core games.”
It’s certainly a good time for the PlayStation 3 to take a family friendly approach with the impending launch of the Wii U just around the corner. Nintendo has had this demographic of gamer on complete lock-down for this entire generation, and again intends to appeal to them with wide variety of new gameplay experiences with its Nintendoland product.
Will Sony’s first party offerings this year be enough to sway shoppers on the fence about what games console to purchase for their families this holiday season? We’ll have to wait and see. A rumored lower-priced PS3 Super Slim model could help this initiative even further.
