Think about your favourite athletes across a number of sports. Whether it’s Giannis Antetokounmpo in the NBA, Cristiano Ronaldo in the Premier League, Emma Raducanu in the WTA, Tiger Woods in the PGA Tour, or long-distance runner Eliud Kipchoge, they all have one thing in common: they wear Nike gear. This is a marketing tactic as old as time: endorse the professionals to wear your products and the masses will want to imitate them.
That’s the goal of Sony with its new INZONE brand, which currently spans a trio of headsets and a couple of high-end monitors. The company will insert the gear into its EVO event later in the year, and is partnering with Riot Games on its Valorant Champions Tour. Why? Well if you ever look at any professional gamer’s YouTube or Twitch channel, you’ll see dozens upon dozens of people asking about their setup. It’s the exact same play as Nike.
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“We’re going to start at the top and learn what top eSports gamers want,” executive deputy president Kazuo Kii told Nikkei. “The vision we have in mind is that of Mizuno and Nike providing shoes for athletes. You can win prize money in eSports. If a monitor’s response time lags even slightly, you lose. Sony products aren’t going to let people engaged in these gruelling battles down.”
The products, of course, will have to deliver – but Sony believes that, when it comes to its new monitors, its history with televisions will help. “Sony is unique in that we come from a background in TV manufacturing. We take pride in our picture technology. We look forward to showing customers our immersive experience and realism.”
INZONE’s first wave of products have been attracting decent reviews, with its $899.99 proving particularly popular among tech enthusiasts. Of course, this is just its first line of products, but it’s clear that the company sees a huge opportunity in the sector – and could prove a real rival to the likes Acer, Alienware, LG, Samsung, et al.
[source asia.nikkei.com, via videogameschronicle.com]
Comments 24
First, can they make the PS5 support my 1440P monitor with 1440p output?
The company that was too blind to make a Funko Pop-type collectibles franchise out of Sackboys?
I doubt it'll work out.
Sony has so many IP's and characters. They could've used Sackboys as a base for all their characters, just like Funkos. I would've collected them like crazy.
Ever since they missed banking on that, I've lost all faith and interest in Sony's merch
@BoldAndBrash I think sackboy in general was under used. Should have made a kids show with him.
Kinda curious how much market research went into this because INZONE is a terrible brand name. Like is it (American) football related? Cause that's how it sounds. But visually it evokes generic store brand. And don't even get me started on the all-caps.
Am I the only one?
Well Im more of a Adidas person myself
Ronaldo's on his way out what does that say haha
But Nike is more affordable.....
Is that even feasible? There are a million other brands and they all make good products for about the same price.
They’re doing well, just a few more overpriced INZONE products made using cheap Chinese labour and they’ll be well on their way.
Laughing at all the gibberish PR speak... Inzone sounds like a shoe shop and secondly a lot of the reviews on the headphones are saying they are all very average indeed.
No on Nike, make it Adidas and I’ll bite.
@BoldAndBrash Sony isn't a toy company, so to go out their way to mass produce collectible figures of the IPs mean teaming up with a whole other company who specializes in that... Which Sony doesn't particularly do unless it for one off.
Sony is a display and headphone manufacturer, so these monitor and headphones isn't too far outside of their comfort zone.
Super excited Sony is back in the PC Monitor market
Still have my SONY SDM-P234 (retired, but never getting tossed) One of the best monitors I have ever owned for work. Love Sony's monitors industrial design back then, still have the touch now 😍
Balls. I prefer Adidas.
YNOS ENOZNI
Nope, still looks and sounds stupid backwards 😁
Also, bland products?
Nike, and other big brands also team up with design specialists, as well as get the technical design side of the equipment down.
Good to have the ambition... But who could tell at a glance while watching an e-sportsperson if they were wearing Sony Inzone products or some fake brand that sells for 8 pounds on Amazon? And that's the whole goshdamn point of it.
PlayStation has super recognisable branding at a glance. Sony does not.
@AverageGamer
They've done official toys and collectibles a lot and are still actively doing it though.
I'm just salty they didn't really take some risk with that.
And yeah, I did kinda throw wearables and gadgets on the same pile as merchandise
Cool.Nike all the way.word up son
adidas ain’t got ***** on nike . smart move
This sounds like one of those things as fresh faced just out of school business/marketing major comes into a company and says "gaiz, I have an idea, let's have a merchandise brand with a name that sounds like the cool kids would like. I'll be an instant hit!"
At least we know what will fill up the discount bins in Gamestop in a few years.
@BoldAndBrash I'm not saying they don't make collectibles or toys, but you're ask for a Funko Pop-type collectibles franchise out of Sackboys. Something that would be a massive undertaking. They wouldnt be able to handle something of that scale which means having to find a company who has the same quality principles as them, working heavily with each studio to approve designed for figures, and then working with retailers... etc.
Better to just license out the ips to Funko and call it a day. At least then if the quality isnt up to par, it not Sony/Playstation's name on the box.
They're not even close. This is why those self help books say Goals < Good Habits.
The branding teams need to rename the products...Just put it all under the Playstation brand IMHO. Very generic-sounding atm.
Hmm
"There are cases where they play hard games on the PC and easy games on the PlayStation when they want to relax. SIE is not fixated on the PlayStation, either. We share the same view of the future. "
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