The world of gaming has certainly changed a whole lot over the years, and while console gaming has continued to remain a solid performer for those involved (except for Sega who had to close shop sadly, despite their Sega Dreamcast being one of the best consoles of its generation), mobile gaming has certainly picked up the pace in the past decade. This could be attributed to the hardware infrastructure being about right with more powerful smartphones and more affordable Internet connectivity on the move, not to mention games that appeal to the masses such as Pokemon GO and the ilk. Sony has a stake in the mobile gaming platform with their Sony PS Vita, although they intend to do so much more with the latest development: that Sony will introduce PlayStation Games to smartphones, starting with Japan first.
The introduction of PlayStation Games to the smartphone platform by Sony Corp. in Japan will kick off from Aprll 2017 onward, where companion gadgets will also be part and parcel of the setup. This will be a whole new mobile push that will certainly pique the interest of mobile gamers, and Sony believes that they would like to have a larger slice of the $35 billion global mobile gaming market with this particular initiative. After all, their major gaming rival, Nintendo, has long been basking in the limelight of mobile gaming with their slew of mobile consoles from the early days of the Nintendo Game Boy all the way to the current generation Nintendo 3DS that has proved to be quite the hit.
It must also be mentioned that Sony probably decided to go ahead with this particular route after observing just how wildly successful the augmented reality (AR) mobile game known as Pokémon GO was -- and still is, where their main gaming rival Nintendo managed to harness the power of the Pokemon franchise by appealing to the worldwide pool of smartphone owners. Not only that, we will also see Nintendo make a move to the mobile platform in due time, and this is certainly a move by Sony that will hopefully be able to stem Nintendo’s tide along the way.
Tomoki Kawaguchi, executive director at ForwardWorks, which is a new studio that was established by Sony earlier this April to provide a boost for their mobile gaming effort, shared, “With so many releases of smartphone games, it is becoming difficult to reach users. But we can make full use of the intellectual property that we own, which is why we are rolling out smartphone games at this timing.”
Sony is certainly not short of intellectual property that will appeal to the gaming platform, and Sony intends to roll out up to half a dozen PlayStation Games in Japan next year on iOS and Android platforms. Everybody’s Golf is one of those massive hits, while you can also expect titles that will roll back the years such as the rhythm classic Parappa the Rapper as well as the RPG, Arc the Lad.
Along the way, Sony would like to roll out what they call Project Field, which is a new “smartpad” that will hook itself up to smartphones as well as tablets, targeting those who love popular card games along the way.
