Sony Says PS4 Appeals to Wii Owners Who Never Bought PS3 or Xbox 360

Sony sees a big opportunity for the PlayStation 4 to appeal to people who bought a Wii but never a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, according to PlayStation boss Andrew House. Speaking with Eurogamer, House says Sony's own data already shows that Wii owners are making the transition to the PS4, helping the system sell at record levels--7 million systems sold to date.

"Our big opportunity is to welcome back an audience much earlier in the lifecycle that possibly bought into the Wii previously," House said. "Whether it's based on this is a really good all-round entertainment device for a family in addition to having great games, our consumer data suggests some of those people are already coming in now and that's what's contributing to the really great sales we've had."

The Wii was the king of the last generation of consoles, selling over 100 million units, compared to 80 million for PS3 and 84 million for the Xbox 360.

Sony said previously that almost 50 percent of current PS4 owners never purchased a PS3. To accommodate those owners who are new to the PlayStation ecosystem, House said Sony is interested in remastering back-catalog games for the PS4. One such title is Naughty Dog's acclaimed action game The Last of Us, which a huge proportion of PS4 owners have never played. The game comes to PS4 July 29 as The Last of Us Remastered. According to House, there could be more remasters on the way.

"I hesitate to say this because I know committed gamers may roll their eyes about it, but there's an opportunity with some of the remastering or re-imagining from PS3 franchises that will potentially find an audience that hasn't played them in the previous generation because they skipped that generation," House said. "We're starting to see signs of that. That bodes well for us as a platform, but it bodes well for developers and publishers as well."

Sony worldwide studios boss Shuhei Yoshida said previously that the Uncharted series was a "good candidate" for a PS4 remaster. Three Uncharted titles were released for the PS3: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (2007), Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009), and Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (2009). The fourth installment in the core series, Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, launches in 2015 for PS4.

House went on to say that the film industry has provided numerous examples of how classic content can be reintroduced to new audiences over time. He said Disney is the "best example" of this, and explained that he hopes video games can follow suit.

"We as an industry haven't done that historically," House said. "We're only just getting into our stride with people who now have been playing for 10, 20 years, who have a nostalgia factor, who want to see those franchises come back and be reinvented. That is a whole other area of exploration I would like to see PS4 to lead the charge on."