So who's really the official mascot of Sony?

[lasersamurai]

I thought Kevin Butler was Sony's mascot currently, it sure looks that way in the ads. As long as it's not that Marcus n00b.

[L___E___T]

I think 'face' of SONY is a better descriptor, certainly Kevin Butler is currently the consumer face of the PS3 and Marcus is the face of PSP.

Sony have always relied on their brand strength though, the name of SONY alone, because they were already an established electronics manufacturer.

Nintendo and Sega didn't have that strength, so mascots were useful in winning over kids back in the day.

[crade]

"It used to be the other way around: a video game mascot game would be made and the company would hope it was good. "

Um.. actually it used to be the other way around.  Nintendo didn't set out to make a mascot, they just ended up with one.  They made some titles, and picked the one they liked best to bundle with the system, and since it became popular, used it as their mascot later.

Sega I guess you could say "set out" to make a mascot, but thats just because they wanted to copy Nintendo.

Mascots are cutsy.  Cutsy isn't really part of Sony's marketting strategy, they are trying to sell themselves as more serious.  The Halo dude isn't a mascot either.

[satoshi_matrix]

If you think about it, logos have really replaced the need for mascots. The Playstation logo is what you think of first when you think Playstation, not any one game or character. The same with Microsoft's Xbox and the Wii.