In the slide specifically about mobile, Ryan said the company has "aggressive growth plans." Sony will partner with successful mobile developers, establish internal mobile development teams, and publish external mobile games. By the 2025 fiscal year (the period ending in March 2026), Sony aims for mobile games to represent 20% of its first-party portfolio releases, a noticeable jump from 0% in 2019 FY and 10% in the current fiscal year. Below is what we know so far about Sony's developments in the mobile gaming market.
When Sony says mobile gaming, it's not talking about games on a handheld console like the PS Vita, PSP, or PSP Go. But the PS Vita is related to Sony's past in trying to attract a mobile phone audience: The PlayStation Mobile program.
PlayStation Mobile launched in 2012 and shut down in 2015, unceremoniously ended by Sony after never really taking off. Though players may remember PlayStation Mobile as mainly a PS Vita imprint, it was a software-development-kit-slash-publishing-arm for both PS Vita and select Android devices (obviously including Sony's own Xperia phone). On the PlayStation store front, it occupied a separate section. For developers, the PlayStation Mobile publisher fee was only an annual $99--presenting a friendly entry point for newer devs looking to make simple games.
PlayStation Mobile, however, couldn't attract an audience on either the PS Vita or Android. The service stopped publishing games on Android a whole year before Sony pulled the plug completely in 2015.
Sony made a notable decision to hire the former head of Apple Arcade in 2021, while also revealing in the job description that it wants somebody to help adapt existing "iconic IPs" into mobile games. It's too early to say whether PlayStation's planning some mobile subscription service that looks similar to Apple Arcade by a single hire alone, but it does inspire speculation on the possibilities. At the very least, iPhone users can expect attention, unlike the Android and PS Vita-only targets of PlayStation Mobile.
Xperia Play, PlayStation Mobile, Inc, and Sony Pictures Digital releases
So PlayStation Mobile, Inc. is different from the now-closed PlayStation Mobile--confusing, I know! The Inc. version of PlayStation Mobile still exists and has published Run Sackboy Run for iOS / Android and titles for PlayLink, a service that allows players to use their phones for multiplayer games. It also published Uncharted: Fortune Hunter, a mobile spin-off of the popular series, in 2016 and recently shut down in 2022.
Xperia Play, dubbed the PlayStation phone, was also an initiative by Sony to bring games to mobile devices in 2012. Titles like FIFA 10, Sims 3, Need For Speed Shift, and almost 60 other games launched along with Xperia Play, making it an impressive experiment in combining the phone and handheld console. (Though, it also became somewhat of a competitor with the PS Vita, making it an interesting decision by Sony to launch the two products so close to one another.)
Sony Pictures Digital also released a handful of mobile games over the years. In 2007, it released God of War: Betrayal. And more recently, it published My Hero Academia: The Strongest Hero (a game now published by Crunchyroll instead) for a period of time.
You must be logged in to post a comment.