PlayStation Network Return "Uncertain", May Not be 100% Back Until May 31

"The PlayStation Network has been down for a while now. We've been warned that it may be down for a little while longer. Now Sony says it could be weeks still before the PSN is fully operational.

Sony's Shigenori Yoshida has told Bloomberg that his company's deadline for the full return of all PlayStation Network services is May 31. The PSN went down on April 20. That's nearly six weeks of downtime if it takes that long for the entire network to be restored to full operation.

While you'd assume/hope that signing into the network and playing games online are the first things to come back up, and in a much quicker timeframe than May 31, Yoshida says that Sony is "uncertain" when the PSN will actually get back up and running." Luke Plunkett @ Kotaku.com

Week 14 - Business Marketing

Greg Peters, VP of product development at Netflix had announced back in Fall 2009 some great news for PS3 owners. The availability to instantly watch movies and TV episodes on your TV via the Playstation 3. Sony PS3 joined the ever growing list of Netflix ready devices that allows streaming of movies and TV shows whenever you want, as much as you want, all included in an unlimited Netflix subscription. The PS3 is a great Blu-ray and gaming platform that got even better when these two ventures collided their powers together. While still delivering a continuous improvement into their architecture which imporves the Netflix experience by adding more and more features over time. The Netflix application has some exclusive features for the PS3:

• 1080p resolution support 
• 5.1 audio support    
• Multiple language support     
• Subtitle/closed caption support

this all shows a great cooperative agreement between these two business firms creating a strategic alliance (strategic partnership).

PlayStation Network Down

On April 20, 2011, there was an outage on the Playstation Network. The updates on the PSN Service Outage on the Playstation Blog on April 20th was posted by Patrick Seybold, Sr. Director, Corporate Communications & Social Media stated that "We’re aware certain functions of PlayStation Network are down. We will report back here as soon as we can with more information. Thank you for your patience."

Now over two weeks now and the Playstation Network still hasn't resumed to normal services. On Tuesday, April 26 they shared that some information that was compromised in connection with an illegal and unauthorized intrusion into the network.

"Once again, we’d like to apologize to the many users who were inconvenienced and worried abut this situation.
We want to state this again given the increase in speculation about credit card information being used fraudulently. One report indicated that a group tried to sell millions of credit card numbers back to Sony. To my knowledge there is no truth to this report of a list, or that Sony was offered an opportunity to purchase the list.
We continue to work with law enforcement and forensic experts to identify the criminals behind the attack. Once again, we apologize for causing users concern over this matter." Patrick Seybold May 02, 2011 @ Playstion.Blog

Week 13 - Segmenting and Targeting Markets

Most cultural distinctions, different needs and demands of individuals, and diversities in customers’ buying behaviors really require market segmentation of companies to satisfy their customers effectively. The market can be divided in geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioral segmentation variables and the company can focus on target segments which it wants to attract.

According to Sony, the main geographic segments of the PlayStation 3 consist of the Northern America market, the Japanese market and the European market. When Sony released their first video game console PlayStation in 1994, the company’s main focus was on the marketplace from 12- to 17-year-old boys. But nowadays, Sony’s demographic segmentation divides the market of the PS3 in male and female, old and young players and expands its business vastly to a bigger mainstream of entertainment.
Since the PS3 offers a multi selection of video games which includes something for everybody. There’s not merely one game to ultimately define the PS3 platform, but rather different must-have games for different segments of consumers.

Week 12 - Developing and Managing Products

Certain Key factors that can help decide your product and pricing policy is the Product Life Cycle.

Product Life Cycle (PLC): The timescale within which a product is introduced leading to a growth in sales, before sales mature and begin to decline, possibly even ending in the product being withdrawn. (Birth till Death)

Since the launch of the Sony Playstation 3, developer releases and games conferences have seen examples and demos which meant that the press had latched on and the hype was starting to grow. It was an understatement that it was going to be one of the hottest products. As such this gave a great working example to illustrate the product life cycle on product selection choices.

Stage 1 - Introduction Phase

With all consoles at launch the demand well outstrips the supply which ensures that the market price of the product will be artificially high, the reason being that there will be relatively few suppliers with stock and basically people will pay anything for the product. From your perspective you have no competition in the marketplace and you are guaranteed to sell them at a large mark up. This is one of the best times to sell and your margin will be through the roof.

Stage 2 - Growth

The supply is starting to catch up with demand, which in turn means that there are going to be more people with the product and hence the price will start to fall. Increased advertising by Sony and increased press coverage will ensure that the demand rises and as such you can make a continued profit; at a lower rate. Early growth stage is the key are as you approach the latter end the market starts to get saturated with sellers. A good part of the cycle to be selling in as the volume sales counter the reduced margins and provide a great selling base.

Stage 3 - Maturity

This is probably the hardest stage of the cycle to operate in and unfortunately the point where most sellers start to sell, product supply is normal and lots of sellers that have seen the previous profits made jump on the band wagon to get a slice of the action. Sales start to stabilize and then Sony will start to introduce a differentiated product into the marketplace to maintain sales such as a limited edition designed Playstation 3 (ie: Playstation 3 Slim)

The effect of all these sellers coming into the marketplace means that the price wars and intense competition will occur, the market is basically becoming saturated and this is where you see the bigger players leaving the marketplace as the margin produced by the product sale is no longer ‘worth the effort'.

Stage 4 - Decline

We all know there will be a Playstation 4 (probably named differently) and the market starts to decline because people are waiting for the new model to come out, maybe even a competitor brings out a console that will ‘take up the slack' during the waiting period. This generate intense price cutting in the marketplace and the price can drop significantly from day to day.

The hardest part of selling any product within the profitable sections of the product life cycle is judging the time of each stage, every products life cycle is different with some having longer stages than others and even some missing stages completely and going from introduction straight to decline. The key is to become an early adopter and aim to get the product early and maximise the market potential of the product, using the Playstation 3 example this will be extremely difficult for the majority of sellers however every product has a life cycle and every product has the potential to make profit so limiting yourself to a specific product is like throwing money down the drain.

Week 11 - Integrated Marketing Communications

Corporate blogs are sponsored by a company or one of its brands maintained by one or more of the company's employees. 

The official Playstation.Blog is "where people who create the Playstation experience meet gamers and fans directly. Conversations here goes both ways, so make your throughts known through comments, ratings and via Twitter, Facebook, and Share."

Week 10 - Product Concepts

Sony is looking at minimizing their impact with their products by reducing the size of their packaging. They also use non-VOC vegetable oil-based ink in all Japanese made units. On the inside of their boxes, all Sony-created documentation uses 85% post-consumer recycled content. By promoting environmentally conscious packaging the size of the product packages become smaller making it is possible to increase the number of products it can load per container, thereby increasing trasport efficiency.

On behalf of Sony’s PlayStation 3 and PSP; their products are the easiest to get out of the box quickly and safely. The accessories and add-ons for these games systems, whether by Sony or a third party, are very easy to get out of the box, too. Even the tough shrink wrapped Sony accessories have a secret pull-apart section, making the impossibly tough looking protective shield a snap to remove and open. Their product packaging is part of the whole marketing plan for a great majority in their products. Packaging is important because their stunning or attractive packaging draws customers to try their new product without that customer even knowing anything about it. Thinking about it practically; if product packaging didn't play an important part of Sony's product overall appeal, then why do they spend so much money on packaging? It's because they know that their attractive packaging can make a difference between their products being sold.

MGS4 PS3 hardware bundle box art, which is now officially in a white box instead of the black blox shown when the bundle was announced back in February 2008. 

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. (SCE) also started the Playstation Logo Licensing Program, part of their Official Licensing Program, which is targeted to a variety of lifestyle products from apparel to everyday items. Licensees who enter into an agreement with SCE through this program can design their product using the PS3/ PSP/PSPgo/PS2/ Playstation/ Playstation Family logo and iconic (triangle, circle, x, square) marks on a variety of lifestyle products such as apparel, accessories, house wares and more.

The packaging for such items will show the same "Official Licensed Product" logo that's applied to licensed gaming gear. Since the launch in 2009, 45 licensees have released over 123 items. 

Week 9 - Sales Promotion and Personal Selling

Sales Promotion and it's sales is a marketing discipline that utilizes a variety of incentive techniques to structure sales – related programs targeted to customers, trade, and/or sales levels that generate a specific, measurable action or response for a product or service.

Sales promotions for example includes free samples, discount, rebates, coupons, contents and sweepstakes, premiums, scratch cards, exchange offers, early bird prizes, etc.

Sony has promoted its products through different sales promotional strategies. For example after the release of the Sony BRAVIA television sets, Sony promoted them by earl bird prizes by saying that all BRAVIA full HD LCD TVs purchased during July 2008 and registered within two weeks of purchase qualify for a Bonus Playstation 3 as long as the customer claims is one of the first 35,000 received and validated by Sony.

Public Relations or Publicity relations is a broad set of communication activities employed to create and maintain favourable relationship with employees, shareholders, suppliers, media, educators, potential investors, financial institutions, government agencies and officials and society in general. Through its website, Sony corporation has its provided contacts for those customers who will be in need of any information from the company. In this way Sony can create a mutual relationship with its customers and ensure that it serves the wishes and demands of its customers.

"For example, Sony released an ad depicting a man smiling towards the camera and wearing on his head a crown of thorns with button symbols (Δ, O, X, □). At the bottom, the copy read as "Ten Years of Passion". This supposedly took advantage of the publicity from the Mel Gibson film The Passion of the Christ. The advertisement outraged the Vatican as well as many local Catholics, prompting comments such as "Sony went too far" and "Vatican ex-communicates Sony". After the incident, the campaign was quickly discontinued."

Week 8 - Advertising and Public Relations

Sony Computer Entertainment America has a marketing character by the name of Kevin Butler who is portrayed by actor Jerry Lambert. Their It Only Does Everything advertising campaign for the Playstation 3 in North America, he stars as the Vice President of many ficticious departments within the Playstation division of Sony and responds in the advertisments as "Dear Playstation" queries.

There have been positive reception due to the commercials, Sony extended the commercials throughout 2010 and 2011. The character manifested by Deutsch/LA, the advertising agency responsible for the campaign and they also manage Kevin Butler's Twitter account and wrote his E3 2010 speech.

The reception of the string of commercials starring Kevin Butler has been met with positive acclaim due to its humorous and lively tone. Consumers love it and the results are really in the sales. Peter Dille, the real VP of Marketing of Sony Computer Entertainment America had stated that they have received conacts from the media, requesting an interview with Butler while not realizing he isn't a real person. 

Week 7 - Retailing

Sony opened the Playstation Lounge on November 9th, 2010 with their opening day festivities with a giant sized Sackboy from Little Big Planet and they provided raffles for Playstation Move bundles. The new Playstation store on the first floor (ground floor) of the company's headquarters office on 550 Madison Avenue (East 55th Street on Madison Ave) at the Sony Style Store - looks pretty posh! As well as providing all things Playstation-related, the store is packed with cool looking booths that feature demos for games and they designed the store for the fans and it feels so immersive to get one's hands on the game demos way before they get released. The PlayStation Lounge is the only place where you are guaranteed to get your hands on the all new PlayStation Move motion controllers, as well as PS3’s, PSP’s and the incredible line-up of software that accompanies them.

Week 6 - Consumer Decision Making

Video gaming as a family has the potential to bring generations together, provide experience of digital technologies to all ages, and develop social skills such as turn-taking.

WHO PLAYS COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES?

67% of American households play computer or video games.

The average game player age is: 34

In 2010, 26% of gamers were over the age of 50.

WHO BUYS COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES?

The average age of the most frequent game purchaser is 40 years old. 

Jesse Schell an iinstructor of entertainment technology at Carnegie Mellon University has mentioned how there are games now for pretty much every age and every demographic. More and more women are going online. It comes down to everybody now is playing games. Games are just evolving like a species in order to fit into every little niche of our lives. 

Week 5 - Developing a Global Vision

Sony Computer Entertainment acquired Media Molecule Studios. The acclaimed developer of multi-million selling LittleBigPlanet, who joined Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios in London March 2nd 2010. They are a creator of a multi-million selling and multi-award winning Playstation 3 of their exclusive title, LittleBigPlanet. Media Molecule joined as part of SCE's global development operation, SCE Worldwide Studios.
In a strategic move to continue to secure their excellence in game development for current and future Playstation platforms, the acquisition of Media Molecule formalized a great successful relationship with SCE.

Media Molecule, based in Surrey, England, is the award-winning developer of LittleBigPlanet, one of the best-selling titles for PS3, a game that introduced gamers to the unique blend of Play, Create and Share.

Week 4 - The Marketing Environment

Sony has a brand diversity with their product ventures and brands - in which each connect consumers across various lifestyle segments. Sony's brand recognition and marketing finesse to create new product categories and re-introduce mature ones. The major elements of promotion mix include advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, direct marketing, and publicity. Sony has used all of these marketing communication mix elements and strategically communicated the lifestyle attributes of the Sony brand to the generation Y, its primary market but at the same time it seems they are also just providing Sony to everybody.

Even if the the prices imposed by Sony seems to be fair with the consideration of the quality of their products and services offered. The middle or lower class customers will have trouble with the expensive price to buy those products. However, with recent price drops on their products and still providing ways to reach every consumer. For example, the Sony Playstation 3, has an identity diversity: movie buffs and such like enthusiasts lean toward the PS3 for it's Blu-ray , Media Sharing and Netflix streaming capabilities at the ready. For gamers, with the current game selection on the PS3 (such as shooters, action/adventure, racing and sports game to name a few) they target the hardcore more extensive gamers. Allowing some of the PSN titles on the Playstation Store to target more casual gamers with still providing enough entertainment for the whole family. In the future, look for Sony to create entirely new forms of entertainment, blending movies, computer generated worlds, games and music. Sony has the vision, technology and content to forge a direction in consumer entertainment that no other company can match.

Week 3 - Ethics & Social Responsibility

At Sony Electronics they recognize the close connection between their business and the environment. Reducing their impact is a challenge they take seriously and with most care. They not only are trying to actively produce eco-friendly products but they continuously strive to be a leading environmental corporate citizen.

"In promoting a sustainable environment for generations to come,

Sony is focused on four key areas:

Global warming and the reduction of greenhouse gases

Conservation and effective use of natural resources

Preservation of our natural environment

Reducing CO2 emissions from product use by introducing more
energy efficient products"

As far as recyling for the GO GREEN movement; The Sony National Take Back Recycling program makes it easy for its customers to recycle. Since the inception of the program in 2007, Sony has collected over 34.1 million pounds of unwanted electronics. Their goal is to collect one pound of electronics for every pound produced.

Here is an idea of the volumes collected since the program’s inception:
2,056,575 lbs. collected in 2007
12,662,987 lbs. collected in 2008
10,862,646 lbs. collected in 2009
8,584,458 lbs. collected to date in 2010
Learn more about Sony's National Take Back Recycling program



"Sony sees global environmental conservation as one of the most critical issues for mankind in the 21st century. Sony, as a good corporate citizen, has therefore established the Sony Environmental Vision to form the basis for aggressive actions to conserve the environment and create a sustainable society.
Sony closely monitors and manages chemical substances used in its products at all stages of the manufacturing cycle, from the raw material and component stages right through to final shipment. Naturally, the cooperation of suppliers is essential in promoting our activities in this area."

Week 2 - Strategic Planning

Xperia Play Finally Revealed! The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play made its debut on the grandest of stages — Super Bowl XLV. But even though it was revealed during the Super Bowl commercial, it hasn’t been “announced” so to say, though, it soon will be.

It was assumed that the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, formerly known unofficially as the PlayStation Phone, would be revealed at the upcoming Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona. But according to an ABC News Nightline special on Super Bowl advertisements, the Android-based gaming smartphone will be shown for the very first time on a much more grand stage — the Super Bowl.

The Super Bowl is the biggest television event of the year, demanding millions of dollars from advertisers squeezing for a mere 30 or 60-second TV spot to reach the most consumers possible for their advertising buck. Over 100 million people were expected to tune in on Sunday’s big game. During the commercial breaks..Sony Ericsson is apparently planning on taking advantage of the massive viewing audience by running a commercial for the Xperia Play smartphone.

"During a segment on tonight’s episode of ABC News Nightline called “The Sign of the Times” focusing on Super Bowl ads, Sean Bryan, Group Creative Director for McCANN Worldgroup, revealed that he has been working on a new “top secret” TV spot set to debut during the Superbowl for a “new gaming phone from Sony Ericsson”. When asked why the project was such a big secret, Bryan replied: 'Well, it’s the launch of a new product. We want people to know it’s coming, but we want them to wait to see the phone.' "

On Sony Ericsson’s Facebook page, a countdown has appeared pointing at an official announcement on February 13th. And here's the commercial played during the Super Bowl to make the wait a little more bearable.

Week 1 - Sony Computer Entertainment Brief History & Mission Statement

Sony Computer Entertainment is a video game company specializing in a variety of areas in the video game industry and responsible for keeping Playstation growing and thriving in the United States, Canada and Latin America. SCE handles the research & development, production and sales of both hardware and software for the Playstation line of handheld and home console video game systems. SCE is also a developer and publisher of video game titles and covering the company's biggest markets.

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc, was established on November 16, 1993, in Tokyo, as a joint venture company of Sony Corporation and Sony Music Entertainment. This was after Ken Kutaragi's Playstation project - although supported by Sony Corp. president Norio Ohga - met opposition from within Sony where a lot of the upper management considered these "toys" beneath them and feared it will do damage to the Sony brand. Ken Kutaragi worked closely with Sony Music which attracted a lot of talent and knowledge with regards to the use of CD-ROMs. Kutaragi was the original head of the project and later to go on..and become the President of Sony Computer Entertainment as well as being known as the "Father of Playstation." As part of a worldwide restructuring at the beginning of 1997, Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., headquartered in Foster City, California, where it was reestablished as a completely owned subsidiary of SCEI.

Sony Computer Entertainment makes advance hardware that enables the most talented developers to produce amazing titles and set new standards in the interactive entertainment. Their goal is to make a family of products that completely changes the definition of home entertainment. It won't matter if you're a hard-core gamer or if you just love Blu-ray movies, Playstation entertainment products have something for all of us.