Sony targeting yo’ momma with the PS3?

Here at bit-tech, we give the PlayStation 3 a lot of flak – we admit it. We like to poke fun at it now and again because, let’s face it, it isn’t doing quite as well as everyone thought it would just yet. It’s still early days of course, but the lack of third-party AAA titles already has people worried.

One thing we can’t fault Sony for though is the Blu-ray player which is a core part of the PlayStation 3. Sure, it drives prices up a bit on the console, but it also makes the low-end PlayStation 3 model pretty much the cheapest Blu-ray player on the market.

That’s something Sony knows all to well too and Senior Vice President of Marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment America (now that’s a real job title), Peter Dille, has said in a new interview (via Joystiq) that this is part of a deliberate move to target “moms”.

Dille says: “She knows the whole family's going to get some lifestyle value out of this and not just the gamer in the house, it becomes a ... better value proposition.”

Of course, it’s all kind of assuming that the mother in question both understands exactly what a Blu-ray drive is (I know mine doesn’t) and has a HDTV to watch it all on.

Is Sony just trying to find a market for themselves in a niche because they’ve failed in the mainstream, or is it a genuine attempt for Sony to try and cater for more audiences? Let us know what you think in the forums.