Sony PSP Says Change Your Shirt

Games for nongamers are in style, and on its redesigned handheld, Sony is meeting demand with—among other offerings—My Stylist, a wardrobe organizer

by Kenji Hall

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As one of the leaders in the game-console industry, Sony (SNE) has a reputation for putting hard-core gamers first. But in the coming months, the company will release new software created by Reina Araki, a former designer of packaging for Sony products who admits to being "terrible" at games.

Her idea for the PlayStation Portable console: a wardrobe organizer for fashionistas. Araki's My Stylist doesn't really qualify as a game. Its aim is to restore order to your closet. Snap photos of your clothes with the PSP's attachable camera and store it on a memory stick, and the program suggests outfits and keeps track of what you wore. It helps you avoid the fashion faux pas of showing up to an event with friends in an outfit you've been seen in before, and one day it will likely let you go online to consult friends or coordinate your wardrobe with the season's newest offerings.

Araki's inspiration was her own daily ritual of agonizing over what to wear to work. "I thought it would be great to have my own fashion stylist," says the 28-year-old Araki.

Campaign for Casual Gamers

When My Stylist debuts later this year for the handheld PlayStation Portable console, you can bet Sony's hard-core base of 18- to 34-year-old male gaming fans won't be lining up to get one. They generally prefer heart-thumping slash-and-shoot encounters, as in Monster Hunter or the role-playing adventure of Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII.

But Sony's new games chief can hardly wait. Kazuo Hirai, who took over as Sony Computer Entertainment's president and chief operating officer in June, is now pushing hard for projects like Araki's that don't cater to die-hard gamers. That's because the PSP's allure as a gaming and multimedia gizmo appeared to be fading. Last fiscal year through March, Sony shipped just 8.4 million units, down 41%, from 14.1 million the previous year.

It's a big comedown for a company that holds the industry's record for console-game sales. But Hirai has a plan to re-energize PSP sales: marketing to the masses. "We spent so much time talking about PSP as a great portable entertainment video game device," Hirai says in an interview. "We're now extending that by saying here's another way of enjoying your PSP." (BusinessWeek.com, 9/19/07)

Courting Nintendo-like Success

In many ways, Araki's lucky break reflects the changing dynamics of the $30 billion gaming marketplace. Video games are now reaching a wider audience, thanks to a shift in focus to innovative gameplay, a combination of online social networking and multiplayer gaming, and new nongaming uses for portable consoles. The key for Sony will be to transform the PSP from an entertainment system for tech geeks into something more versatile and less intimidating that ordinary consumers will want.

That poses a huge challenge for Sony. Hard-core gamers still make up its main audience. In contrast, Nintendo (NTDOY) has succeeded in wooing nongamers with a touch-panel for its handheld DS and a motion-sensing wand-like controller for its Wii living-room machine. Nintendo also has redefined what constitutes games with such hits as Nintendogs, which involves training and playing with puppies.

And it's testing the DS for uses beyond just gaming, including one trial at baseball's Safeco Field in Seattle where you can order food, watch the game's closed-circuit video, look up player stats, and play trivia on the DS. Over its lifetime, Nintendo's DS—whose November, 2004, launch gave it a one-month head start on Sony's machine—has outsold the PSP more than 2 to 1 worldwide. By the end of 2009, the DS could top 100 million vs. 51 million for the PSP, according to market researcher IDC's forecasts.