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Sony forms new PlayStation Mobile department, will create games based off new and existing IP.
- Thread starter Eddie-Griffin
- Start date
remember_spinal
Banned
How do you know? Maybe they’ll be taking three times longer bathroom breaks because they can’t stop playing hits such as Ultimate Sackboy.
Dev times will escalate out of control.
I would mind a sackboy game like animal crossing for mobile, maybe give it some augmented reality type stuff like pokemon go where you get to add real world items to the game
El Pistolero
Member
I'll raise you not being interested in either! I never play mutiplayer titles, nor do I ever invest any time in WRPGs or FPSs for that matter...but we can not expect Sony to cater to our individual tastes exclusively, can we?
As long as they keep producing their story based, polished titles, I will be there to support them with my money; The moment they do a 180, is the moment we will part ways amicably...
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StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
I thought they already made a mobile dept? Maybe not. Makes sense since early this year or last year they hired a big wig to lead mobile.
Varteras
Member
CamHostage
Member
A couple of times, Sony has tried PlayStation initiatives in the mobile market.
There was their Ericsson partnership (which the parent company owned) to make Xperia Play and bring PS1 Classics to mobile.
Then there was stuff like the Pinball Heroes games and Uncharted: Fortune Hunter & Run Sackboy Run and other PS games cross-plat to mobile if not exclusively on mobile (some published by PlayStation Mobile Inc., so yes, that's a familiar name...) PlayStation Certified was somewhere around in that same time, which was a certification system for games to run mobile devices with touchscreen play (pretty much just Sony phones and tablets, ultimately) as well as PlayStation Mobile Certified game consoles with buttons (only PlayStation Vita and PlayStation TV, never PS3/4 of course, as these machines were not as derivative of the mobile core) and apparently 683 games shipped with PlayStation Mobile Certification but still it didn't amount to much.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Mobile
And then even more recently, there was/is ForwardWorks in 2016, a Japanese-driven publisher (originally formed by Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc aka PlayStation, but now under the Sony Music umbrella if not entirely independent?) which mined the PlayStation library for mobile titles as well as made its own games. They put out mobile games of Arc the Lad, Everybody's Golf, Wild Arms, Disgaea (weirdly, some of their games weren't owned by Sony, they have deals with Nippon Ichi and Kadokawa,) and some other stuff either tied to a franchise or original to ForwardWorks.
https://www.gematsu.com/companies/forwardworks/page/1
Maybe more times than that? Sony is a big company, and it's been in mobile gaming with and without PlayStation, but there are a couple cases where they tried to fit in, to varying degrees of success.
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Eddie-Griffin
Banned
TV and Sports.
It failed miserably because Sony stretched themselves too thin, made false promises about support, and then abandoned it, so fans and modders found a way to unlock the emulator so you can download games on the phone from the PC. The phone itself was low spec for a Sony phone at the time showing they weren't serious about providing a real game experience, I think it was $700 too. Everyone kind of forgot about it, they had a whole mobile ecosystem set up for all their phones back then, I think it was called PlayStation One or PlayStation Certified for mobile or something along those lines, maybe someone who games on phones in 2011 can chime in because phones were pretty bad for gaming back then.
it had one of the worst spec lists compared to Sony's other phones that were available at the time.
https://versus.com/en/sony-ericsson-xperia-arc-vs-sony-ericsson-xperia-play-vs-sony-xperia-pro
Video game software has never died, is still being sold physically and digitally in droves on hardware that sells millions of units. The problem is you are calling people playing flappy bird on phones gamers. Gen Z gamers aren't playing games on phones, they are playing Fortnight on PC or or console, or COD, paying billions in MTX.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
There must be a good reason why that giant moblie game they have is under Sony Music and not gaming.
At some point all that stuff you listed above will transition over to this new department.
Azurro
Banned
That one will be awesome. It will be hosted by Druckmann who will rage against the patriarchy and his guest will be the person he will share his wife with this week.
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CamHostage
Member
Heh, nope, there isn't.
This actually happens a lot with parts of Sony (I think exclusively Sony Japan?) that Sony Music somehow gets involved in a product line or business model that isn't music and seems like it should be in the "interactive entertainment" division yet it's not by PlayStation.
Sony Music for example was the company who started up the weird Unties label of indie games (which puts out games on PlayStation, PC, and ... Nintendo Switch?), they also own Crunchyroll Games, and maybe other software studios. Recent games by Sony Music include Tiny Metal and The Midnight Sanctuary VR.
Sony Music actually pre-dates Sony Computer Entertainment / Sony Interactive Entertainment, aka PlayStation, in videogames. They produced/distributed SNES games like SkyBlazer and Equinox (as Epic/Sony Records in Japan; Sony Imagesoft handed them in America/EU.) Even in the PlayStation era, Sony Music produced early games like Tenchu and Kileak for their initial Japanese releases. They did some gravure idol video discs for PS2, they have game/fan discs of artists like Puffy Ami Yumi and Morning Musume, different indies over the years went through them, etc. I believe Sony Music one way or another has titles for every generation of PlayStation.
I remember back in the day, sometimes you would get a PS1 game and there would be an unusual "Sony Music Entertainment (Japan)" credit and you'd think, oh whoops, they put down the wrong Sony...
It's confusing, but it's sort of like how when the PlayStation division was separate from Sony Online Entertainment (even though PS's 989 Studios was involved in EverQuest.)
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Captain Toad
Banned
I'll buy whatever gaming console you make Sony. Just don't ask me to play games on my phone.
Alebrije
Member
Joel Crushed would be good...also Socom royale..."Read it boy" for kids learning lenguaje.
Greatness awaits
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Panajev2001a
GAF's Pleasant Genius
I cannot speak about the specs more than I owned one, specs could have been better, but it was a great gaming phone or it could have been… but no, touch based endless runner and the like instead…
ChorizoPicozo
Member
Sony knows these overproduced AAA movies wanna be are just a waste of money.
Can't blame them
Can't blame them
Eddie-Griffin
Banned
Actually endless runners where as oversaturated then, in fact, there was a short window where people believed "real' games were coming to mobile with some high profile releases from big studios including Epic. The shovelware took over after.
So really in this case it was Sony screwing up and not really supporting their mobile initiative across their Xperia line well enough to grab market share before the flappy bird clones and runners took over. You are right the potential was there, but potential only goes so far if you don't act on it.
EverydayBeast
thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Sony was losing to the Nintendo ds but they weren’t being punished, people really liked the psp it was fresh at the time.
TGO
Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Eddie-Griffin
Banned
PSP was a big seller, outsold the DS for the time, but Sony didn't go all in during that window of opportunity, instead they tried to push UMD as a movie and music format, and kept prices for the prorietary stuff high, and did nothing about the piracy in later years, and then the high-profile support dried up along with the western support.
Still sold 10's of millions. it was also much stronger than the DS, which I believe was still a bit weaker than the Nokia N-Gage. People were shocked by the graphical fidelity at the time.
remember_spinal
Banned
the problem with the psp and vita is sony had to split their dev teams, so it was either sacrifice their consoles or sacrifice their handhelds.
Even nintendo had to eventually streamline development to one device. The steamdeck is perfect because it doesn’t require any more of an investment beyond a pc port for sony and you get all the latest games.
If a new psp was put on the market it would jsut fail again because of the resources required and they wouldn’t have the third party support steam has, which is what sets it apart from nintendo. SIE had entire teams dedicated to PSP games, like Bend.
Everything they do for VR and Mobile, are efforts that don’t effect their main studios
Even nintendo had to eventually streamline development to one device. The steamdeck is perfect because it doesn’t require any more of an investment beyond a pc port for sony and you get all the latest games.
If a new psp was put on the market it would jsut fail again because of the resources required and they wouldn’t have the third party support steam has, which is what sets it apart from nintendo. SIE had entire teams dedicated to PSP games, like Bend.
Everything they do for VR and Mobile, are efforts that don’t effect their main studios
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Eddie-Griffin
Banned
They didn't really have an issue with that when the PS2 was out. For the first 3 years the PSP was gold before it died outside of Japan, outside being a pirate box, or internet browser, or music player. UMD died around the same time, Sony had a portable UMD video player planned, and a CD player successor, and UMD was going to be on PC's, but didn't pan out.
Thing came out over 10 years ago.
Where you been
Actually 11. We are talking phones just starting to have HD 720 screens lol.
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remember_spinal
Banned
Ps plus extra would probably be the biggest. The push into PC and multiplatform development in general will pay off in the long run
In general Jim Ryan is broadening Playstations reach beyond just console sales, which is important for longevity. Sony has survived for this long in gaming because they adapt to change quickly. People thought sony was done when xbox live got popular, and now look where we are two decades later
The same thing is happening now, they are simply staying ahead of market trends. The market is trending mobile, GAAS, multiplayer, social experiences.etc
Sony can’t survive on single player cinematic action games alone for another generation with how drastically everything else is changing. People complained for the last 3 years that sony only makes the same game over and over again, meanwhile gamers get agitated when they start to deviate toward other popular genres.
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ReBurn
Gold Member
You're not wrong. There's too much money in mobile gaming to not try to capture some. Too many people around here aren't willing to admit that the casual market outspends the hardcore market in aggregate.
Now someone will surely say:
Yes, yes...you personally spend more than the entire casual market combined. Good job.
FalsettoVibe
Member
1/10 trolling attempt.
StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
Profits and Sony stock price are way higher after he took over. And for PC gamers, he's green lit PC ports.
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StreetsofBeige
Gold Member
I'd disagree with this point, though I agree with the rest of your post.
Sony's gaming division is at record highs, and their key SP franchises still sell tons of copies. So that gaming strategy hasnt shown signs of plummeting at all.
SlimySnake
The Contrarian
Days Gone mobile port confirmed.
Unknown Soldier
Member
Today's reminder the average age of GAF is 63 years old and none of them have phones.
In the real world, the mobile gaming market is 10x the size of the traditional gaming market and growing much faster. I'm surprised Sony didn't try to get into mobile games sooner TBH
In the real world, the mobile gaming market is 10x the size of the traditional gaming market and growing much faster. I'm surprised Sony didn't try to get into mobile games sooner TBH
remember_spinal
Banned
It was first brought up by Shawn layden a couple years ago but it is starting to see cracks. It’s not a sustainable strategy to rely on AAA games that your audience expects to constantly set new graphical standards with every iteration, that people play and beat within a weekend or worse wait for deep discounts to play.
Even if sonys first party games were selling double of what they are now, (25-30m on average) it still wouldn’t really compare to the amount of money they are leaving on the table with mobile and GAAS. Maybe if sony has a fortnite, or warzone, they subsidize their first party blockbusters with those games instead of passing the buck onto us?
Its either the cost of games continue to rise or they start sneaking in MTX into their single player stuff to get a bigger return. Also, Sony have to start thinking about how to wean themselves off from their reliance on third party games. If taking CoD off playstation would leave them this vulnerable the need a new strategy.
God forbid they lose Genshin or GTA, 2k, etc.
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ChorizoPicozo
Member
You could say that is a falsetto trolling.
Eddie-Griffin
Banned
Actually he inherited a rising Sony that stock wise, is not moving up and down with volatility. Sony actually came back beyond where they were in 2006 in 2019 not long before he came in. It took Sony a long time to get back because they lost billions, closed several departments, laid off a bunch of staff, and killed several of their products going into the PS4, and the PS4. Ryan has a chance to continue growth if he gets the company on a stable path but we have yet to see that happen yet. We'll see.
StealthGoblin
Member
They have been working on a AAA Mobile GAAS game for the last two years with PlayStation involved most of the way. They’ve been kept separate from console development.How do you know? Maybe they’ll be taking three times longer bathroom breaks because they can’t stop playing hits such as Ultimate Sackboy.
Dev times will escalate out of control.
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