In the US, however, Sony's focus will be on stressing the 'always on' nature of the firm's new handheld to an audience it's already tapped up: PlayStation 3 owners.
The PlayStation promise
Speaking to the New York Times, SCEA's hardware marketing director John Koller said the handheld's $50 million marketing campaign in the US will focus on conveying how PS Vita helps PS3 players take their gaming experience out of the home.
The trick will be to make them "feel engaged and still feel like they're playing on a console."
It is, he said, the "largest platform launch in terms of marketing investment" Sony has ever instigated in the US, with the aforementioned 'Never Stop Playing' campaign set to span both social media and more typical outlets, such as television commercials and billboards.
Getting consumers involved organically, however, will be key to making PS Vita's message find its way to as many users as possible, he added, and the handheld's official US Twitter hashtag - #gamechanger is the baby of US ad agency Deutsch.
The portable game
"Gaming is no longer playing alone in a basement by one person with one machine; its all networked," said executive VP and creative director at Deutsch, Jason Elm.
Indeed, Elm stressed not only will PS Vita appeal to existing PlayStation consumers as Koller asserted, but the campaign designed to push it will also reach out to an audience "very socially plugged in, mobile, out and about, both physically and on the internet."
As has long been the case, it appears Sony's strategy in the west is one that looks vastly different to the one the electronics giant has employed in Japan.
Koller will be hoping the handheld's sales figures will be altogether different, too.
[source: New York Times]
