Sony is developing at least five smartphone games based on PlayStation titles, which will be released in the next 18 months.
According to Japanese news site Nikkei, the games will be initially launched in the Asian market in the business year ending March 2018.
In March, the company announced a new division, ForwardWorks, formed specifically to produce new smartphone titles for both iOS and Android platforms, based on well-known PlayStation characters and intellectual property.
It is not the first time Sony has brought the PlayStation brand to mobile phones. In 2012, the company launched PlayStation Mobile, a software platform that allowed owners of “PlayStation certified” phones such as some models in theSony Xperia range to download a selection of classic and independently produced PlayStation titles. However, the concept failed to generate enough interest from phone owners, while the PlayStation Vita handheld console, which also supported PlayStation Mobile games, did not sell in great numbers. PlayStation Mobile was canned in the summer.
This year, Nintendo made its own foray into the smartphone sector. After the successful release of its Miitomo title in March, the company invested in the development of smash-hit augmented reality title Pokemon Go, which, has been downloaded more than 500m times since its launch in July.
In April, the company, which resisted the smartphone sector for several years, also revealed that it bring favourite console titles Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem to phones, and the legendary designer Shigeru Miyamoto announced Super Mario Run would be coming to iPhones and then to Android devices, at Apple’s iPhone 7 press conference in September.
The fact that its rival Nintendo has now embraced the smartphone sector so fully will no doubt be a motivating factor for Sony. Its PlayStation 4 console is currently leading with sales of over 40m, but there is huge potential in bringing the brand to the casual smartphone gaming audience.
There is no word on which PlayStation brands will be coming to phones, or if the developer is working on original titles or conversions of classic games. Names like Crash Bandicoot, Uncharted, Wipeout and Gran Turismo will surely all be in the frame.
Source: The Guardian
