The CEO of PlayStation, Jim Ryan, spoke in an interview about the development of the player community. He concluded that more women are gaming now. The reason for this is that more women are taking lead roles in games.
Who is speaking? Jim Ryan is the head of Sony Interactive Entertainment and thus of PlayStation – not just the console, but the entire company behind it. He has been working there long enough to have experienced the release of the first PlayStation in 1994/95.
In a detailed interview with gamesindustry.biz, he talks among other things about the release of the PlayStation 5, the expectations for the new console, and the development that has emerged among players in recent years.
A lot has apparently happened here: The age range of gamers is much larger than many might believe, and more women are playing. There is a specific reason for this, as he states.
Female protagonists are bringing women to gaming
How has the community evolved? In the interview, the head explains that the PlayStation player base has grown continuously over the years. This is mainly due to the fact that players have become more interconnected since the release of the PlayStation 4.
There were still problems with the PS3 as players interacted little and had little to do with each other. However, since the PS4, a kind of “tribal behavior” has developed, where players communicate more with one another, exchange ideas, and form a social network.
This is what Ryan says: Another reason is that more women are interested in gaming, which again is due to their increased representation in games:
A lot of the work we’ve invested in female protagonists has definitely resonated and become evident in the growing presence of the female demographic in the PlayStation community.
While Ryan does not mention specific games, blockbuster titles like Horizon: Zero Dawn and the 2020 release of The Last Of Us Part 2 are likely two of the games that significantly contributed to this development, especially since they were released exclusively for the PS4.
However, there was also criticism specifically aimed at The Last of Us Part 2 regarding the story. Players were dissatisfied with how everything developed, leading to a review bombing on Metacritic.
The platform reacted, but too late – and not because of The Last of Us.
50-year-olds asking for help getting a PS5
Ryan also mentions that gamers frequently reach out to him via email asking for help in getting a PlayStation 5. The new console is apparently very much in demand.
The release is not until November 19, but during pre-orders, the PS5 was already sold out multiple times. Now players hope for a third wave to secure a console.
Some of them write directly to Ryan and send him messages. These do not come only from young gamers, but also from older players who started with the PlayStation 1:
Many of these are from people in their mid-50s who say they’ve been PlayStation gamers since 1995 and are asking us for help getting a PS5 […] This shows that the age profile is rapidly growing demographically with each generation. At the same time, I regularly receive emails from really young gamers, beautifully written… often better written than those from 53-year-old gamers.
He suspects that especially older gamers are those who took a break from gaming to raise their children and are now, as the children become independent, finding time to play again and wanting a PS5.
Ryan believes that the PlayStation 5 will even sell better than the PS4. In the interview, he states: “We are starting now with 100 million gamers who hopefully will quickly transition to a PS5.” So far, the signs look pretty good, as the Sony chief already warned:
