Sony is gearing up for a Blu Christmas, saying its emphasis on the PS3's Blu-ray playback will be "much more aggressive" in its new holiday marketing campaign.
In a post on the
official PlayStation blog, Sony Marketing SVP Peter Dille said the new campaign is scheduled to break this weekend in conjunction with the US introduction of the new 40GB PS3, and is slated to be the company's largest-ever marketing effort for a hardware platform.
The exec described the new campaign as having a "high-energy, entertainment driven focus," with the console's Blu-ray playback a key component.
In a separate interview with
GameDaily, Victor Matsuda, VP of Sony's Blu-ray Disc Group explained that the campaign would "focus on the convergence of the PS3 as a movie and game device" and that it was "a big part of the corporate strategy for promoting Blu-ray Disc this fourth quarter."
Matsuda went on to say that the company was considering bundling the PS3's Blu-ray remote (which is currently being sold separately) to help further emphasize the movie playing aspecs of the hardware.
Although the PS3 is by far the best-selling playback device on either side of the high-def format war (and has propelled Blu-ray to a nearly 2:1 disc sales lead over HD DVD year-to-date), opponents have argued that the console's achille heel is its "attach rate" (the number of Blu-ray discs owned per unit).
Matsuda said Sony itself was paying particular attention to those numbers, and the company planned to release "very positive" information on what percentage of people who buy a PS3 use it for Blu-ray Disc playback and with what frequency in the next few weeks.
To preview the first two spots in the PS3 holiday campaign, visit the
PlayStation Blog.
