Sony has committed to bringing its PlayStation brands and IP to third-party mobile devices, potentially as soon as this year (via VideoGamesChronicle).
Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan today explained during an investor relations session that the company plans to launch its major franchises on non-console platforms such as mobile, encouraged by its "very successful" first steps into the PC gaming market.
Ryan presented research suggesting mobile gaming generated $121 billion worldwide in 2020, compared to $62 billion brought in by the console market and $42 billion generated by the PC gaming market, demonstrating the case for the company to move into mobile gaming.
We are beginning our journey to take PlayStation first-party IP off console. We started last year by publishing two of our games on PC, Horizon Zero Dawn and Predator, and both were profitable and really had a very successful publishing debut... In FY21 we will begin to publish some of our iconic PlayStation IP on mobile.
PlayStation intends to publish an increasingly large number of titles on mobile, hoping that it will "become steadily more important as time passes" relative to console gaming.
Sony previously claimed that its move into mobile gaming would occur with at least five titles by March 2018, but it never came to fruition.
According to VideoGamesChronicle, PlayStation opened a new business unit to adapt its "most popular franchises" for mobile earlier this year and was hiring for developers to achieve a mobile product roadmap within a three to five-year time frame.
PlayStation has a huge catalog 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 Interactive Entertainment owns a large number of popular video game franchises, including "God of War," "Gran Turismo," "Killzone," "The Last of Us," "LittleBigPlanet," "Ratchet & Clank," "Until Dawn," "Uncharted," and more. The company's intention to move into mobile gaming will presumably see some of these titles arrive on iOS and iPadOS. Sony's PlayStation 5 DualSense controller also now works with iOS and iPadOS, which may aid the gaming experience with Sony's new mobile games.
Six years ago, rival company Nintendo announced its foray into mobile gaming on iOS and other platforms. Although the company has seen some success in the business move, it has also experienced some misfires, and there have since been indications that Nintendo is "retreating" from its mobile gaming plans.
The arrival of Sony's "iconic IP" on mobile platforms will occur by the end of the financial year in March 2022.
