Why PlayStation mascots always fall from grace?

[ThunderBoy]

I mean... Sega has Sonic.
Nintendo has Mario.
Microsoft has Master Chief (or Phil Spencer XD)

Why has PlayStation never been able to maintain a mascot as its brand image across generations?

 

[Jayonnaise6105]

No idea. Growing up, Sony had all my favourite mascot characters too. Jak & Daxter, Ratchet & Clank, Sly Cooper, Spyro, Crash Bandicoot. They even had the Yakuza franchise for ages until that became multi-platform

 

[CaptainToad]

You also had Toro Inoue, although he's mostly just in Japan.

 

[Segadude113]

I mean... Sega has Sonic.
Nintendo has Mario.
Microsoft has Master Chief (or Phil Spencer XD)

Why has PlayStation never been able to maintain a mascot as its brand image across generations?

Because 7th generation onward, Sony thought they needed to be more "mature" and replaced all the animal mascots with gruff dudes with guns.

 

[MasterEn]

the only common factor that i see with all of these characters besides knack, is that sony doesn't own those characters specifically.

 

[moonbits]

they move on, at least try to.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

Probably because they don't own many of their true flagship characters: Crash, Cloud, Spyro... they all belong to someone else, despite being system sellers and widely associated with their consoles.

 

[Miles]

Probably because they don't own many of their true flagship characters: Crash, Cloud, Spyro... they all belong to someone else, despite being system sellers and widely associated with their consoles.

That seems to be the main reason why.

 

[Frickinfrik]

Well, ratchet and clank are still a thing.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

You also had Toro Inoue, although he's mostly just in Japan.

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I'll be a weeb and say that to me he's the one true PlayStation mascot as a whole.

 

[Scotty]

I grew up with Nintendo, so none of these characters have a huge impact on my life. Heck, I STILL haven't played any of these series to this day.

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I mean... Sega has Sonic.
Nintendo has Mario.
Microsoft has Master Chief (or Phil Spencer XD)

Why has PlayStation never been able to maintain a mascot as its brand image across generations?

I forgot about Knacks.

But I'm a bit mad that Astro replaced Sackboy when the later could've had a new game...

 

[Gingers]

I remember being super stoked for All-Star Rumble until I realized what it was. I think that memory holds the answer. Sony always pushes their characters too far, with too little care. All-Stars could have been as legendary as smash at this juncture, but because they keep fumbling their mascot's IPs and burying them for years Sony ends up with nothing. More importantly, PS fans end up with nothing. Obligatory ps3/4/5 has no gaems XD

 

[Jayonnaise6105]

I forgot about Knacks.

But I'm a bit mad that Astro replaced Sackboy when the later could've had a new game...

Yeah, surely there's room for BOTH AstroBot & Sackboy

 

[Pinballbuzzbro]

Cause the AAA industry sucks and is rightfully floundering on it's face next question

 

[Bakuma1997]

They are too focused on trying to amp on Mario or Master Chief that they ignore the people that actually play the games

 

[nobitakun]

I thought Sega had Segata Sanshirou

 

[qw90700]

Sony likes to murder their identity like they have a fetish for it or something lol.

Sony has no idea what to do when it comes to video games, so they care too much about what some brain dead people says on Twitter and whatnot lol. Now they wanna only develop keyboard and mouse or something WTF.

 

[Ferik]

I'd actually say PlayStation's most consistent mascot is Kratos.

He's had at least one original game on every single PlayStation console except the first one and the Vita, and they've all been some of the best selling and highest rated games on those consoles.

 

[LouieBee]

Because Sony never actually gets behind them. Crash Bandicoot got over organically with audiences, same going for Lara Croft. No Sony IP had a character that became the be all, end all, "designated" character of the platform, as much as they played a big part in Sony's marketing. By this logic, I'd be prepared to throw Sofia from Battle Arena Toshinden in the mix since she was so important to that early North American marketing circa. 1995.

Anyway, Mario is virtually indistinguishable with Nintendo and represents them in various different properties, heck, Sonic still has the odd cameo in Sega branded prodcuts where he has no actual purpose otherwise.

Sony Japan did atleast put their efforts behind Toro (see above). I would also argue that, right now, Astrobot represents the PlayStation identity quite strongly, despite Sony's otherwise staunch emphasis on cinematic, story driven, games as of late.

 

[Segadude113]

Probably because they don't own many of their true flagship characters: Crash, Cloud, Spyro... they all belong to someone else, despite being system sellers and widely associated with their consoles.

So what? Nintendo didn't ditch Pokemon after all these decades. Pikachu is still a popular mascot.

 

[MasterEn]

So what? Nintendo didn't ditch Pokemon after all these decades. Pikachu is still a popular mascot.

true, but pokemon is exclusive to nintendo. crash has had a few games on nintendo consoles, so he's not a sony mascot per say [he is strongly associated with sony, particularly with the ps1], but starting with ratchet and clank; these character have only had games on sony consoles and some ports over to computers. so, since 2002, they've had plenty of characters with games exclusive to their platforms; but like i posted earlier, they are not owned directly by sony. they are like pikachu, strongly associated with a particular brand; but i guess that means nothing in the end to sony.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

So what? Nintendo didn't ditch Pokemon after all these decades. Pikachu is still a popular mascot.

Because Nintendo would have to hate money to do that. It's the same reason why GameFreak won't jump ship anytime soon.

All the others, though? Square can drop Final Fantasy wherever they want, and Insomniac have published Spyro games on many platforms. Naughty Dog is basically a wild card, but they guarantee Sony no exclusive access to any of their IPs.

 

[Turbo Kid]

Because Sony never actually chose a mascot in the first place. Nintendo and Sega went all in on Mario and Sonic. Sony never went all in on anyone. Also, I think Lara Croft could have been their mascot at one point. She should be there instead of Nathan Drake.

 

[Dr.Kisaragi]

I thought the mascot of Sony Playstation is Ape Escape or Parappa the Rapper