During the late 90’s and the early 2000’s, the word gaming was synonymous with PlayStation. We were the PlayStation generation. As Xander Cage said in the action movie XXX “You have a bazooka. Why don’t you blow some shit up? Stop thinking Prague police and start thinking PlayStation“. If there was a commercial or Hollywood movie, if there was a gaming device in the background, it was a PlayStation 2. When the duo sat down for  a scene to play games, they had PS2 controllers in their hands and when there was a skit from the Daily Show or SNL, the game cover would belong to a PS2 game.

What’s changed since then is the one-year head start Microsoft had with the Xbox 360. Mix that with the rocky and high price point the PlayStation 3 had in its initial three years and you can see how Sony fell behind in the lime light. Plus, there is this misperception that the Xbox is really far ahead of the PS3. It’s because of this that the PlayStation 3 exists in a now alternate twilight zone universe of the late 90’s and early 2000’s where it has been replaced by the Xbox 360. When Turk and J.D sit down in Scrubs to game, they’re “fraggin noobs on the 360“. When the Daily Show with John Stewart runs a skit on the absurdity of banning video games, the game they are holding is a 360 game. And of course when Target or Walmart are running an ad, showing a family in the living room, on both print and commercials, they are playing the Xbox 360. This gradual bombardment has slowly taken the 360 to a pop culture status where now gaming is synonymous with the Xbox. Sure Microsoft itself pays heavily for its products to be advertised, but part of it is still the cultural status of the 360. When the PA gets assigned to go pick up a prop, they reach for a 360 game, and when the advertising company is finishing the set, the Xbox is what they place. So this has not only shifted the image for the younger audience that gaming and the 360 are the same, but for the parents as well. That means your mom is much aware of the Xbox; guess what she might reach for during the next birthday or Christmas?

So how can Sony stride back into the consumers’ grace? Partially, they are already doing so by releasing solid first party exclusive games like God of War, LittleBigPlanet, Killzone and Uncharted. Since launch, the price of the PS3 has been cut in half, Sony continues to improve the PSN experience and release new and exciting add-ons like 3D playback for games and movies and the new PlayStation Move. But there is another tactic as well. I’ve beaten the horse on the lack of advertising on Sony’s part so I won’t focus on that. Instead, Sony needs to use its might with divisions like Sony Pictures, Sony Television and Sony/BMG. For example, Sony actually makes the NBC hit comedy Community as well as Rules of Engagement on CBS. Sony needs to make sure that during production and scripting, when scenes involving gaming, there needs to a PS3 used and nothing else. This is to counter back the younger generation’s perspective of the PlayStation 3 and get it more out there as an everyday product. If Sony-owned show Doctor Oz is doing a giveaway to the audience, they need to hand out PS3/PSP as the item and draw in the parents. Again, this is to counter back and get that name in parents’ minds so when they show up to a store, the PlayStation 3 doesn’t seem like a foreign object to them.

These are some of the simplest changes Sony can make, as they actually own these shows. Furthermore, Sony/BMG can make sure its artists have a PlayStation device in their music video (don’t think its coincidence that a particular music video has the artist using a Nokia phone or driving Jaguar and not a BMW). If there is a Sony Pictures film, you bet there will be Sony products used, and Sony actually already does a pretty good job with this. Sony also needs to talk to some of its advertising agencies and partners and have them use more PlayStation and Sony products. Give them the products for free, heck, give them incentive to use their products, but just do whatever it takes to give Sony some background presence. A great example of this is Apple. Apple has a strict policy that they don’t pay any show to use their products but you can bet that for all the shows you see that have Apple computers, and there are tons of them, Apple is behind the scenes. How? They provide the Macs for free. It’s simple, but production loves that. It cuts their cost and they get to use the “cool and hip” Apple product.

In the end, making just a solid product is not enough and just doing normal advertisements does not cut it anymore either. Sony has done a great job on expanding the PlayStation 3 experience via solid platform and AAA games. In the advertising department, thanks to Kevin Butler, Sony has really kicked it into a higher gear as well, although it’s still not enough. But these really make up only a part of the puzzle for Sony and its PlayStation division. Sony needs to also come back into the everyday consumer mindset and pop culture scene by not being in the forefront like a commercial, but instead in the backgrounds of print ads, TV commercials and TV shows and other media avenues.