PlayStation Sony Smartphone 1

Earlier in the year, Sony posted a job listing for a new role within the company focused on “the expansion of our game development from consoles and PCs to mobile and live services”. Now, as part of a corporate strategy meeting, PlayStation bigwig Jim Ryan has shed a little more light on the brand’s decision to step into the realm of smartphone software.

“We have been thinking about how players enjoy our content and have had some early success with experimenting with mobile games and apps to provide more choice to gamers,” the group CEO said. “Mobile is just one of the areas we are exploring to reach millions of gamers beyond our platforms. PlayStation has a huge catalogue of diverse first-party IP that can transition to smartphone gaming and complement our AAA games or live service games. We are exploring the mobile market with some wonderful PlayStation franchises so please stay tuned.”

Sony has released mobile games based on PlayStation apps in the past, such as platformer Run Sackboy Run, puzzle game Uncharted: Fortune Hunter, and weird promotional app PlayStation All-Stars Island. However, this seems like a more concerted effort to actually expand the reach of some of the organisation’s biggest brands.

It’s worth noting that Nintendo has had huge success following a similar strategy. The company’s smartphone-based Mario Kart spin-off had attracted over 200 million downloads as of 21st April, while over $1 billion have been spent on the various apps published by the firm – and that figure doesn’t even include Pokémon Go. Clearly, there are some serious readies to be raked in here.

[source sony.com, via eurogamer.net]