Sony is gradually trying to expand its brand outside of its core PS5 pillar. While the console remains paramount to its PlayStation business, the Japanese giant believes it can attract more fans to its franchises by creating movie adaptations, releasing titles on PC, and establishing a smartphone division. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard the manufacturer mention mobile: you may recall it headhunted a high-level executive from Apple Arcade, and acquired developer Savage Game Studios.
In a presentation overnight, the firm admitted that it has “multiple internal studios working on mobile games”, including the aforementioned German team, which has now been fully integrated under the Sony Interactive Entertainment umbrella. It sounds like the platform holder has a triple-pronged approach here: partnering with experienced mobile studios on existing series, acquiring new developers, and fleshing out its recently established smartphone-focused publishing team.
All of this, of course, will continue to reshape the way Sony’s first-party output looks. It predicts that as of Fiscal Year 2025, which starts April 2025 and ends March 2026, approximately 10 to 15 per cent of its output will be mobile-based. Furthermore, it predicts about 35 per cent of its releases will be on PC, with the remaining 50 per cent on PS5. Obviously those PC games are likely to be ports of older titles.
It’ll be interesting to see how this smartphone division evolves. Obviously there’s big money to be made in mobile, as recent releases like Honkai: Star Rail have proven. The question is: how does it intend to capture that market, and with what kind of software? While we’ve been hearing about this strategy for quite some time, we’re still waiting for a firm roadmap of releases to be outlined by the organisation. Consider our interest piqued, however.
[source sony.com]
Comments 40
@BeerIsAwesome It's not mentioned in the presentation but I think it'd make sense for them to combine all those divisions under SIE.
No interest from me personally but like with Cloud as long as it remains a thing on the side then I have no beef with it.
@BeerIsAwesome Good point.
They've recently added a music section to Crunchyroll too.
I'd love to see Crunchyroll be the main draw for PS Premium, and the current Premium features folded in to Extra. But I wouldn't be surprised to see a subscription at this point that includes more and more of Sony's other media offerings.
It's not been a good few days for PlayStation news personally. Let's hope tonight's showcase doesn't have much live service garbage. They need the best showcase ever after 2 years of silence, and live service and mobile is not what I want, at all.
@Sakai I'll never understand why people consider it bad news for them to expand their offerings?
Investment into things like the recent The Last of Us TV show means they're now more likely than ever to make bigger and better games in that franchise.
I think their strategy seems sound, personally. There was a time when their brands were no where near as big as they are now.
Rather than attempting to loot box players to death with poor mobile ports Sony should just buy up Android PSP emulator PPSSPP and then link it directly to the PSP PS Store.
Players would be able to access all their old titles, buy new ones and play them all on their phones. This would generate some goodwill from the community and generate a tidy income. All those titles are built for portable play in mind so don't need any tweaking.
So MS and Sony are headed into competition outside of the console space. Looks like Cloud/PC-Mobile and Console is the way forward for the big 2. I like this strategy as it allows more people into both ecosystems. Plus is generates lot’s of cash and helps continue to fund games/Hardware and services. I am excited to see how this plays out. I will be there on both ecosystems and do my part in seeing them grow. 😀
If they expand their market share, by whatever means, it means they will value their IP more highly. They then increase spending on all fronts to back up an increased marketshare.
Stuff like making more people fans of their various products and divisions is good news for everyone. Rising tides raise all boats and what have you.
Everyone saying they only want Sony to invest in single player videogame experiences exclusive to PS consoles doesn't have a single clue how to run a global conglomerate.
I'm considering getting the next Sony phone next year . I do do a lot of gaming on mobile
Laughable, I've 2 gaming PCs ,Xbox series x,PS5 and Nintendo switch and you want me to play on a weak mobile 😂
I’d be very happy to play their mobile games, as long as they were proper (paid for) games that didn’t rely on the usual time gating or other practices to encourage MT. And i’d need it to be connected to the PlayStation network so trophy campaigns are also included in all their games.
Well Crunchyroll are already making/publishing mobile games, then there's sony music with Fate Grand Order, and then there's the recent sackboy run game on mobile. So it's nothing new for them.
Damn, what smartphone boom. I thought that was years ago.
Are people still playing games on their phone? And if so, why? I mean, yes, on the toilet I also play some dumb crap stuff... but..
They should divert manpower from horrible live service and mobile games to making more PS exclusives.
2 exclusives a year ain't cutting it, imho.
I wonder what the PS4 game is for FY23, MLB The Show 24 ending up releasing in March 2024 comes to mind but maybe it's something like Factions 2 instead.
@MFTWrecks Exactly, thank you!
Sony is smelling of sadness and desperation.
Tonight's showcase will make my decision - Xbox or PS5 for June's Street Fighter release.
@Cashews eh? Not sure how you reached that conclusion they are expanding their markets. Xbox are literally doing the same thing in the same areas.
@Sakai Agreed, I hate that Sony is expanding imto the mobile and live service market
Not sure how some people see this development as either desperation or weakness. It is Sony literally smelling blood (XSX has failed in console market, as generation is almost at half of it's lifetime and it sold 1/3 of PS5) and deciding to expand on all additional fronts where MS is still competitive.
Personally I don't care much about mobile or cloud at this point in time, but kudos to them. Companies are supposed to grow and diverse investments.
I'm not into mobile games, but from a business point of view I can understand the appeal of it, and it could be great for all. Mobile games are cheaper and faster to make and can bring a lot of money in the pocket, Wich could mean the studios could get bigger budgets and Sony PlayStation make more investments.
@Sakai I do not get why so much hate. Some people like to play live service multiplayer games like me for example (Apex Legends). Some like to game on their phones. Some on PC. Some like virtual reality.
Look at Microsoft - they are much likely to do what "internet likes". Sony gets a lot of hate sometimes but usually they experiment much more and usually more successfully than others...
@Cashews Unfortunately, mobile gaming is big business at the moment. They would be foolish to not be looking to get involved there. As long as it doesn't detract from the current quality of first party output, of course.
There's no desperation about it, it's just keeping up with the times. You mention Xbox but they are doing the exact same things too.
@get2sammyb it's bad news for me, as I personally have no interest in it. Its just resources took away from the things I enjoy
@Majk_SVK I hope they enjoy them, but I do not.
Don't see the problem with it provided they have separate teams making these games.
To me this is no different to Sony making PSP/Vita games, except it is not tied to specific hardware.
@Grimwood In 2022 the mobile gaming market was worth $122 billion. Around 60% of the gaming market! Yeah I'd say people play games on their phone.
Even though I have 0 interest in gaming on my mobile I think this is a great move by Sony!
The more money they bring in the better for the brand, and it makes them stronger going forward.
MS have almost unlimited funds and are showing that they are willing to spend it, and that they are in this for the long haul! For Sony to keep competing they need as many revenue streams coming in as possible. Just sticking to only big single player AAA games would be suicide long term.
As I put above, the mobile gaming market was worth $122 billion last year and its predicted to keep growing. For Sony to not want a slice of that would be really really stupid.
@Sakai it's not all bad news, I've read today that sony are also looking to sell off some of their subsidiaries/shares to raise more funds to focus on acquisitions for playstation.
https://gamerant.com/sony-acquire-more-studios-playstation/
the smartphone boom is over. everyone has one now. nothing good will come of this venture... even nintendo failed with mobile and their IP is much more recognizable amongst the casual gaming space.
Not really a surprise with their declared intents on expanding into more live service games & mobile (& tv/movies),none of which are reasons I like to play on PS!😕 (PS Deluxe region down under so still no PS Now type streaming!)
But the real stinger is their keeness to possibly revisit some old classics in new mobile forms, but still haven't been bothered on majorly expanding the PS Classics range with third parties & still restricted to select few ps1/psp titles...surely they can get a fully functional PS2 emulation/classics range to replace the abandoned range on PS4? (Most of which seemingly don't work well on ps5).
I'm sure there'll be some big AAA announcements, (& hopefully indies too),just wish they had a bit more love for the classics catalogues both 1st & 3rd parties.
@Porco I don't know about that, i mean pokemon go has earned billions, animal crossing and fire emblem mobile games have also raked in the cash, in 2021 animal crossing pocket camp surpassed $250 million in player spending. That's enough to make 3-4 nintendo first party games for the switch.
I think an Horizon mobile game like pokemon go and made by niantic would be great and successful.
@UltimateOtaku91 could be interesting mate thanks for the heads up. I read the link and it says the money would be for image sensors and entertainment. Let's hope its single player devs and not live service/mobile devs they plan on buying!
@Sakai They class playstation as entertainment as well, and since playstation is their biggest profit sector I'd wager they will go all out with it, abit like Nintendo who only focus on gaming/toys and media.
As long as branching out more to mobile won't affect the pace of their console productions, I don't particularly care.
@UltimateOtaku91 pokemon go was a unique anomaly that has no equal due to IP recognition but that was technically not a nintendo developed game. niantic takes full credit for that one, but yes, it made nintendo a lot of money at its peak as i assume nintendo collected some royalties on it. i was more referring to super mario run and mario kart tour — according to nintendo, they underperformed. pikimin bloom outright failed. i forgot about fire emblem and animal crossing so i'll give you those... on the whole, though, i don't think mobile has been the success story nintendo was expecting... i feel like sony would struggle mightily in this space due to their IP not lending themselves well to mobile.
at any rate, what happened to wipeout rush?
@BeerIsAwesome True. I'm doing a lot of wishful thinking with this one.
At this point though it looks like "PlayStation" is beginning to evolve in to a general entertainment brand. I have no problems with it. They're doing pretty well so far.
@BeerIsAwesome "And all good entertainment brands don't stand still."
100% true.
You swim or you die.
Plus, the great single player games keep on coming and more are on the way. Nothing has changed or will change in that regard.
They are investing and buying new studios to help with their push in to live service and mobile. They are also investing in existing studios and making them bigger.
It's not that a smaller sector of the pie is being dedicated to traditional games. They're working from a bigger pie.
Personally I think if anyone can make a live service game that hooks me long term it will be PlayStation.
Unless the mobile games have the trophy system tied to it I could care less.
I still have zero interest in mobile gaming, but as long as it doesn't decrease the quality or quantity of first party studio console games I don't care.
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