AgentChris said:
Funny story.
I once met a man during a dental appointment and we ended up making small talk. Lo and behold, he told me he worked at a firm (he quit a few years ago) that was involved with SCEA marketing for the PSP in America. We talked and he shared an anecdote with me about the first few years about marketing campaign and demographics for the PSP. Do you know the most significant demographic for the PSP in North American up until late 2007?
Lower/working-class black males between the ages of 13-25.
Sony had noticed early on that blacks made a significant portion of the PSP userbase. Many of them came from sub-$30,000 income households. In other worlds, these were
poor teenagers with
poor parents. Anyway, black youths were attracted to the shooters, sports, and racing games on the handheld. In particular, they would go on to become a significant market for the GTA PSP games.
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories would become a major PSP system-seller for young black males since they have always been a significant demographics for the franchise. Sony got got wind of this and began publishing of their own games involving shooting or gang warfare, such as Gangs of London. Coincidentally, Sony discovered that DS owners were older and substantially wealthier than PSP owners. It's speculation on my part but I think Brain Training had an effect on that.
You might have noticed that a number of Sony's marketing campaigns have targeted the black community, such the PSP 'rap' viral video or the Squirrels speaking ebonics for the Daxter game/nut ad. I was told there were ads in magazines and websites targeted toward blacks. Then, there is the PSP spin-off of the Kevin Bulter ad campaign with Marcus. Of course, it's possible that Marcus is just a coincidence since the PSP demographics have changed since then.