Sunway Pyramid entices gamers with PlayStation Lounge

Sunway Pyramid has partnered with the Singapore branch of Sony Interactive Entertainment Hong Kong (SIES) to launch a "Play Everything Lounge" by PlayStation in Southeast Asia. Claimed to be the first in the region, the launch will be available for visitors until mid-February 2019.With the latest PlayStation games and activities, there will be two separate sections in the lounge. One is catered to children-friendly games, whilst the other section will feature gaming tournaments, community engagement activities and unreleased game trials.In a statement to A+M, HC Chan, chief executive officer of Sunway Malls & Theme Parks said that Sony has been a tenant in the mall for over a period of time and has developed beyond the landlord and tenant relationship with the mall. The mall treats its tenants as business partners and engages them in formulating the right and relevant trade mix on both a long term and mid-term basis, Chan said.The proposition of having a diverse crowd for Sony to reach out comes in line with the mall's drive to continuously engage shoppers by providing lifestyle experiences during their visits. Through this lounge, Sunway Pyramid hopes to generate better footfall as consumers take advantage of the PlayStation experience. The lounge also sets an example of how technology can be used to enable a different dimension of experience. The other aspect of ROI the mall is looking at is the amount of engagement by consumers with the lounge when in-store, he added.Sunway Pyramid will be placing emphasis on social media for its marketing, given the platform's propensity. Virality aside, the mall also looks to bank on the after effect of word of mouth. As such, the entire setup of the lounge, physical path finding within the mall, accessibility, lighting and even general ambience have been curated and managed to get that positive word of mouth.(Read also: Why Sunway Malls is looking beyond traditional advertising to drive footfall)"We have been reaching out to students of colleges and universities, while Sony PlayStation is reaching out to their own set of customers and we will be engaging key opinion leaders to build further hype on the lounge," Chan said.Chan further said that Sunway Malls take cognisance of the changing landscape and that moving forward, this will allow the brand to future proof its business.“We are honoured that our mall has remained a mall-of-choice for experiences. The partnership with Sony Interactive Entertainment signifies a true collaborative curation by two of the leading names of the industry. It is our privilege to work with a world renowned gaming giant to bring another dimension of experiences for our shoppers. It is important for malls to go beyond conventions to stay relevant,” he explained.Hidetoshi Takigawa, Southeast Asia regional head, SIES said that the partnership with Sunway Pyramid is a testament to its commitment in reaching out and engaging its PlayStation fans, as well as gamers in Malaysia."PlayStation’s business in Malaysia has grown tremendously in the past few years and our community events in Malaysia, such as PlayStation Experience 2017 South East Asia and God of War Midnight Launch, were received very well by our fans here," he added.