Mobile games have become big business over the past few years and Sony, the creators of PlayStation, is now looking to cash in, having announced the formation of a dedicated company to develop new mobile titles based around some of its most recognisable franchises. The new smartphone focused company will be called ForwardWorks and comes into effect as Sony Computer Entertainment will become known as Sony Interactive Entertainment on April 1st.
Sony states that ForwardWorks will developed “full-fledged” titles that use PlayStation characters and a range of intellectual property, so hopefully we are looking at something a little bit above and beyond some simple IP cash-ins. The company’s new focus on the mobile gaming market should be far more successful than its PlayStation Mobile effort that was scrapped last year. This initiative attempted to bring indie mobile games to its Vita hand-held console, but it seems smarter to bring games to the wider smartphone market.
Sony hasn’t announced any information about its first wave of titles or any possible release dates just yet, but the announcement states that ForwardWorks will be focusing on customers in Japan and other Asian markets first. This makes great business sense, as Japan is one of the biggest mobile gaming markets in the world.
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Japan has also been the focus of Nintendo’s push into the mobile gaming market. Nintendo release its first mobile app Miitomo on March 17th and clocked up 1 million downloads in just three days. The company is planning to release some actual games later in the year.
Unfortunately we don’t know if or when Sony will be selling its upcoming mobile titles outside of Asia, or if the company will be adopting the mobile freemium pricing model or sticking to a traditional upfront PlayStation-style pricing scheme. Even so, would you like to play some Sony mobile titles on your smartphone or tablet?
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