Sony is trying to grow the PlayStation brand beyond the boundaries of its console. As more time passes, it’s becoming increasingly clear what the platform holder’s remit looks like: bring more award-winning PlayStation properties to more people. We’re seeing the fruits of its labour through its expansion to PC, television, and now mobile.
While this may be concerning to long-time fans, who have grown accustomed to the full extent of the platform holder’s energy being behind its console platform, the Japanese giant has been eager to reiterate that this is all additive – and will not take away from its more traditional efforts. PS Studios boss Hermen Hulst has reiterated that point in a PS Blog post.
“As we assured you before with our plans to bring select titles to PC, our efforts beyond console in no way diminish our commitment to the PlayStation community, nor our passion to keep making amazing single-player, narrative-driven experiences,” Hulst explained, before going on to list all of the blockbusters Sony has released this year.
He continued: “Our mobile gaming efforts will be similarly additive, providing more ways for more people to engage with our content, and striving to reach new audiences unfamiliar with PlayStation and our games.” The goal for PlayStation is to reach entirely new audiences, which in turn it hopes will capture new fans and drive them back to its console ecosystem.
There’ll be a lot of criticism for this initiative, but personally we reckon it makes sense. The games industry is changing dramatically, and Sony needs to be nimble and flexible to retain its position. Putting some of its most successful franchises in front of potentially new fans is not a bad thing, and it’s clear that PlayStation needs to exist beyond the console in this day and age.
[source blog.playstation.com, via News: Sony Establishes PS Studios Mobile Division as Smartphone Push Intensifies]
Comments 59
Sony dont forget what got you where you are
@trev666 Well that's literally what he's saying, isn't it?
It will help bring people to playstation if they like the mobile games, also maybe sony should also bring the PlayStation plus premium to mobiles to stream games
Look at the companies actions for they speak much louder than these empty words
If you like AAA single player games PlayStation is still the obvious choice
"our efforts beyond console in no way diminish our commitment to the PlayStation community, nor our passion to keep making amazing single-player, narrative-driven experiences."
This is what I'm pleased to hear.
Pretty interesting that they just have billions of dollars laying around to purchase studios (with much more to come!) but man they just had to raise the price of the consoles or they could have possibly face bankruptcy apparently 🤷
My only concern would be that Sony as a company only has a certain amount of money, so funding things like mobile games must lower the console budget to some extent I would think
Single player games.
That's what we want.
No online additions, just a great solo experience
@Blaze215 What actions would those be?
Because this year I see Horizon: Forbidden West released, with TLoU: Remake out in a few days and God of War: Ragnarok out in a couple months.
Last year had Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and Returnal.
Year before that had TLoU II, Ghost of Tsushima, Astro’s Playroom, Miles Morales, Demon’s Souls.
Single-player output seems pretty normal so far.
Branching out to mobile and Gaas doesn’t change that if single-player output is maintained at the pace they are going currently.
Saving this post so that in 5 years or so we can say they lied to us
The next SoP better have a few First Party Singleplayer Games in it. And hopefully not in CGI Trailer form
On a business standpoint I don't blame Sony for trying to reap the rewards of mobile gaming. So many free games out there rake in millions of dollars thank to microtransactions.
On a regular consumer standpoint I really hope this doesn't detract from the quality of their regular console games.
Honestly, their push into the GaaS model is hurting their single player games more than mobile gaming will. I expect mobile to be a heavy part of their GaaS plans but it's also taking a toll on their games as we knew them already. For example murmurings of the new Twisted Metal being a GaaS game is a serious turn off. Time will tell though.
I think people are just getting a little restless with how little we know about what most of the 1st party devs are working on outside of Santa Monica and Insomniac. A proper showcase would go a long way in alleviating people's fears.
No doubt that's what they will do in the long run. I just hope Sony will also do more variety that is not a cinematic, 3rd person over-the-shoulder action games. We need more in the rpg, jrpg, survival horror, fighting, etc. department.
The worst part is every one hoping this won't take away from single player games cause Thier PR says so ....
If your making 500 million on a single player game but making 2 billion from mobile f2p crap ( if they get a hit like say candy crush ) , which one do u think they will invest more in ? Makes zero sense to invest more in single player games
Makes complete business sense for Sony to go more into the mobile games market-ridiculous amount of money to made from some great Sony franchises. I’m sure I saw somewhere that bungie where looking to go all in on mobile gaming aswell-prob what made Sony pay all that money for them. I’m not a mobile game player,but I’ll keep an eye of for anything from Sony mobile games.
I honestly don't mind what they do with all this as long as products are of equal content and quality. Any additions for PC releases need to find their way back to the console versions and visa versa. Really not bothered about any potential shift to day-and-date releases as the eternal benefit of buying a PlayStation console is A, the insane value for performance with a smooth operating system and B, they just work (unlike many experiences I've had getting PC titles to run well OR at all).
Their mobile and GaaS stuff has real opportunity to grow the PS ecosystem and rope in many casual fans (+their money) - I seriously don't see Sony giving up on their traditional AAA single-player titles so all this can only add to the quality of their output. Although depending which studios, the frequency of output could be affected. Hopefully the burden of support for these games will be handed off to smaller, satellite studios.
Whatever man, just be more transparent. We have know idea what's going on, no presence at any events, no communication. This is what is starting to annoy me. No news then a bunch of worrying stuff followed by reassurances and the cycle continues. Show don't tell works the best you know.
If it doesn't have an impact on the quality and output of PS5 1st party games then it's alright with me. As much as I and plenty others don't care for phone gaming and I even hate talking about it there's obviously huge potentials of huge profits to be had with it so you can't blame a company for trying something else to generate money especially when huge potentials
The end is near guys....
@Sakai depends on what they are bringing in. So we simply don't know. I would advice, judge on the product not solely on the news.
@Bingoboyop you want them just at events just to be there? Y'all be upset over nothing.
I for one am looking forward to the Last of Us mobile game
Meanwhile.
"Let's buy a bunch of mobile developers, porting studio's and service online devs."
"Because we love single player games."
-Sony.
I just for the life of me don't understand the appeal of playing games on mobile. The platform is just so limiting. That said, I get it's popular and generates loads of revenue so I can't blame Sony. And I'm optimistic they can handle more than one thing personally but we'll see.
The fact they could have invested and expanded in more of those single player experiences with two incredibly capable studio’s in Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal but didn’t says otherwise to me.
Ember labs and square enix 🤔come sony.word up son
@BamBamBaklava89. I agree with you on that.especially since tomb raider started on PlayStation.and deus ex would have fit so nice with PlayStation.or they could buy ember labs and square enix.word up son
I mean actions speak louder than words and all of your announcements and acquisitions recently tell me the opposite words are hollow
Excuse me for being jaded by the game industry, but this is how it starts. Empty statements, output of said single player games slowly goes down.
Bottom line: mobile games, ports, live service, etc cost less and if any of those really take off, the first group to get squeezed will be us single player gamers, which is ironic considering those games got Sony to where they are with PlayStation!
Meh, this generation sucks monkey balls.
A Playstation Showcase revealing a load of unannounced 1st party single player games would be a lot more meaningful than this statement.
people make it sound like sony holding you hostage to play mobile games.
sony also have a movie/tv/camera department. that takes 0 from developing titles. this is exactly the same.
people getting panties in a twist over nothing as usual.
Their actions are kind of speaking louder than their words. Shutting down their Japanese studios, bolstering their mobile portfolio, buying up devs that focus on live service and their single player games tend to be "cinematic experiences". I just don't really like the direction the company is going.
I think diversity is probably the key to sustainment and expansion in areas of most businesses.
All so it brings cross business engagement and exposure.
Look how all the game companies do clothing, is the simplest example.
Nintendo, theme parks and Lego.
The world continually changes more so then ever the need to diversify maybe the need to survive.
None of these game companies make a niche product, it’s an entertainment product and that business world is massive.
@Snake_V5 The end was already here they just need a little more time to brainwash the new generation. MT, DLC, liveservice, no ownership, always online, and free to p(l)ay where you spend more without you notice. Forgot the focus on taking money of a small group of whales with FOMO.
let’s not act like sony would disappear if it wasn’t anymore single players from em 😂 it’s not a nintendo situation , they still have the third parties that most people play
This is going to change the company, it is going prioritize the things that makes them a ton of money just like now.
Yes ppl, it will effect their games and quality. Sony wants to be a media giant and move away from being a video game giant. Is it just a normal progression to make more money.
@get2sammyb
Hey Sammy, Would you please look at creating under your Games Studios Sony owns on going article a section called PlayStation/Sony Mobile: Delightworks, Forwardworks, and Savage Game Studios. Since this is now a unique area from the console game studios. You could even call it PlayStation/Sony Mobile/PC Studios, and include Nixxes since they focus on PC ports only. Just an idea.
Rob aka Graf
people seem to overlook the fact that various monetization schemes that get adopted for sony mobile will likely seek their way into its various live service games and even single player AAA titles. you better believe that sony will be tempted to nickle and dime us for everything we have in our pockets, despite already charging $100CAD for a new release game. basically, if sony finds success in its mobile division (f2p, monetization schemes, etc), that "culture" will influence its entire portfolio because what shareholder can resist those potential margins? might not happen overnight, but give it a few years...
This quote, along with Jimbo's blog entry on the price increase, makes me think Sony brass always go for that Corp line in CP2077 when given a choice.
@get2sammyb He says that, but you get the feeling its just words. Hurst and Ryan both seem like scummy business men that care about nothing but pushing every corner of Playstation into a live service machine.
@trev666 I totally agree. I have a feeling 10 years down the road the customers that got them here from who they once were will abandon ship.
How very fitting that this would happen in a year in which Sony hasn’t announced A SINGLE first-party PS5 game outside of The Last of Us Re-remastered.
Sony are practically holding up mainstream, quality big-budget single player gaming. These words are good to hear.. but I'll be damned if i don't shed a tear every time I think of Bethesda
I mean, they're always going to say stuff like this, but their actions as of late tell a different story. There is a rapid (one might almost say panicked) push from Sony these last couple of years to expand the Playstation brand in multiple directions.
They obviously won't abandon the home console space, but I do think they're preparing for the possibility of losing their place of dominance in the home console space over the next decade or so, and want to account for that elsewhere.
Well, I feel like Sony isn’t as good as they once were and that pushed me to buy a Series X this past week. I feel like the wait for Sony’s best games were getting longer and longer. So, I pickup an Xbox to fill in the gaps.
Sony abandoning Evolution, Japan and some of their other franchises like Infamous, Uncharted, Resistance, pushing unneeded remakes, feeling like they are focusing on everything else but the PS5 has really pushed me away.
I haven’t owned an Xbox in 13 years and Sony is the reason I recently bought one.
Its in there own interest if i dont like what they make then i will just move on.
LOL "Just because we're buying studios left and right to spend billions on GaaS, online services, PC ports, mobile games, and have all our major studios involved in these projects doesn't mean we're not just as passionate as ever about single player games. We're not making many but we have SO MUCH PASSION about them. We won't tell you about them, though. Or what platform they'll be on. But hey, we've got an extra Harry Potter quest for you, so cheer up!"
-Herman.
@zupertramp I mean, Switch is little more than a tarted up mobile, and an ancient one at that, and look at it go....
I, too, am not a fan of mobile games, but it has less to do with the hardware and form factor and more to do with the design priorities for the monetization model. A monetization model that's infecting consoles including PS Studios as well.... Meanwhile I'm playing my PS4 and XSS games streamed to a phone from the consoles so it works like a Switch around the house otherwise I get no play time, lol
A modern flagship phone with a controller and a TV out could probably rival or surpass a base PS4, if the software were actually optimized for it.
But people don't want Persona and Titanfall on their phone. They want Candy Crush and Kratos Infinite Runner with $.99 charges for every axe throw. The hardware's not the problem, the marketplace is.
Like I believe somebody else said somewhere in the comments, if they would just announce things instead of keeping everything secret for no reason, it would go a long way to calming the unrest. We have no idea what the vast majority of developers are actually making for sure outside of a few, with some of the games being either multiplayer games.
After this year, we know of 2 games for sure that are single player games that aren't VR (Spider-Man 2 and Wolverine) I get that some of the games aren't far enough along to really show much of anything, but this secrecy with basically everything PlayStation does now is well beyond wearing thin. Even Nintendo has announced some things well in advance (Breath of the Wild 2, the upcoming Bayonetta 3, etc.).
@KilloWertz The secrecy comes from the fear of what MS has become eating up the market. I guarantee Sony has plenty to show, but won't out of fear of MS will counter with. They are holding all their cards to there chest and will probably only announce just enough to not lose the customers to Xbox. Sony knows the next three to five years is going to be an uphill battle to match the content output that MS will have on top of the success of Gamepass.
@KilloWertz It's kind of a tough issue, because other people will come down on Sony for announcing games years too soon. Hopefully this will be less of an issue once they have a next-gen workflow down better.
Although one of the side-effects of games releasing on increasingly more powerful systems and still being expected to tap the full extent of their power is that games take longer to make, which means you get sparser first-party lineups overall.
@NEStalgia I'm not particularly fond of the Switch either to be perfectly honest, not unless it's docked and I'm using whatever they call that black controller. And even then I'm not going to play anything but Mario on it.
Otherwise y'all can keep your $1000 phones (I have a Maestro Max that I think was $70), your Kishis and Backbones, and anything else handheld/mobile related. I'm good with my giant TV, conventional console and comfy couch. But if I do get the rare urge to play Farmville Country Escape I'll use a PC from the same sofa.
Edit: that's not to knock the preferences of others. I've got no problem with the existence of a mobile gaming market but yes, it could definitely be less scummy.
@get2sammyb Is that before or after they closed down japan studios, moved their hq to ***** california, and tried to close down ps3 and vita stores?
@Juanalf exactly! Lol
@zupertramp clutches his Vita.... 😂
I love handheld play largely because if I waited to play on a big screen I'd end up playing an hour a week lol. Though I bought kishi because switch.... Isn't great for non exclusives.
But yeah I mean "mobile gaming" could be normal games on a portable machine ala switch, but that's the misnomer, "mobile gaming" doesn't mean the hardware, it means the business model, which is the real problem. I just wonder how long until console is fully the same model plus another 70 bucks.
@IonMagi totally agree mate, sick and tired of open world, co op, soulslike crap to be honest.
I'm only slightly bit worried, they're still releasing alot of strong quality content every year thankfully.
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