Sony is investing approximately £47 million (10 billion yen) to develop new mascot characters for use across its businesses, including anime, films, and other forms of intellectual property, according to a report from Japanese financial newspaper Nikkei.
Mascot characters in decline
The concept of mascot characters for platformers and other games was at its peak during the 1990s, with iconic figures like Mario, Sonic, Lara Croft, and Crash Bandicoot. However, by the end of the PlayStation 2 era, Sony and Xbox had largely abandoned the idea, especially as they focused less on family-friendly games. This contrasts with Nintendo, which has consistently leveraged mascots as a foundation of its success.
Sony's new initiative
Sony has decided it has lost too much ground in recognisable characters and is now funding a programme to create new ones. The Nikkei report suggests Sony wants to develop characters similar to Hello Kitty, which can be used in various ways and are not reliant on a single game or movie for recognition. It is not clear whether the Hello Kitty example was Nikkei's own or attributed to Sony, but it illustrates the type of cross-media character Sony is aiming for.
Sony has established a dedicated team and set up 'experiential facilities' to hold events and test new characters with the public, according to the report. The initiative may have been partly inspired by Sony's handling of KPop Demon Hunters, a Sony Pictures production whose film rights were sold to Netflix due to a lack of confidence in the project.
Challenges and outlook
In gaming, Sony has characters like Ratchet & Clank and Astro Bot, but they have never become iconic. Other older IP, such as Sack Boy, the monkeys from Ape Escape, and Toro the PlayStation Cat (popular mainly in Japan), have not achieved widespread recognition. Characters like Kratos are recognisable but not family-friendly, while Aloy and Nathan Drake are known mainly to game fans, not the general public.
The success of characters like Hello Kitty cannot be predicted in advance, and simply spending money does not guarantee success. Whether Sony's new initiative will yield lasting value remains to be seen.
