Sony agree with Chen’s assessment, commenting that the ”primary PSN audience is indeed more adult,” and their best-sellers reflect that. Many PSN titles require ‘deep thinking’.
They see these ‘adult tastes’ ”exemplified” by the success of titles like Flower, Journey, and Heavy Rain. PSN users enjoy the ”emotional and thematic sophistication” of its titles.
”Sony has a more artistic and adult-focused taste,” declared Jenova Chen. ”They care about how grown-ups feel toward their games.” Neither Microsoft nor Nintendo have issued comment to Chen’s assertions, except for Sony who are quite in agreement. Journey has become the PlayStation Network’s fastest selling title.
”Our primary PSN audience is indeed more adult, and many of our best-selling titles appeal to this demographic,” Sony’s Jack Buser told GamesBeat. “Many PlayStation and PSN games have themes that require a user to think and feel about a deep, immersive gameplay experience, and we see that exemplified in the success of titles like Flower, Journey, and Heavy Rain. Titles like these can only be found on PlayStation, and our users enjoy the emotional and thematic sophistication of their games, especially with our digital offerings.”
Lead designer Chen adds: “The player who owns a PlayStation 3 is more likely to be interested in artistic games compared to Wii and Xbox 360.” As the sales numbers from the PlayStation Network aren’t released publically by Sony it’s hard to verify with pure hard data. Surely XBLA’s Alan Wake’s American Nightmare is mature for an adult?
