Sony CEO: company will "aggressively" push into mobile gaming following Pokémon Go success

midian182

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With one eye on Nintendo’s successful move into mobile gaming and its then-popular Miitomo app, Sony announced back in March that it was forming a new business unit dedicated solely to making mobile titles based on PlayStation games and IPs. Now, following the almost worldwide success of Pokémon Go, company boss Kaz Hirai has spoken about Sony's smartphone plans.

In an interview with the Financial Times at Berlin’s IFA event, Hirai said: "[Mobile gaming] is something we are aggressively getting into.” He cited the Niantic title directly, adding: “It's quite a shift from being just a console-based business to being on mobile phones as well. Pokémon Go is a real game-changer. I'm very interested in the fact that it has the potential to really change the way people move, literally."

The augmented reality element in Pokémon Go has always been its main draw, and it's an area that Hirai wants Sony to explore in the mobile titles from ForwardWorks Corporation, which has yet to release a game since its inception. The CEO called AR a "great innovative idea that's going to lift all boats for the video game industry."

The ForwardWorks games are planned for release only in Japan and Asia but, like Miitomo, they’re likely to expand across the globe if they prove successful in these launch regions.

The number of daily Pokémon Go players may now be declining, but the game has brought in an estimated $440 million since launching in July. According to app analysis firm SensorTower, the title has been more financially successful than summer movies such as Warcraft, Independence Day, and Star Trek Beyond – it’s no surprise that Sony wants in on the action.

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Hope they don't spent too much but if they make them mobile games at low cost and don't spent too much on marketing it won't affect them too much when it fails. Just hope they would instead focus on making quality TV's, audio equipment and other electronics as sonys own games and movies (sony pictures might be different entity (don't know/care) but has the name sony in it) haven't been that good lately. Only good "sony" game since ps4 came is bloodborne and even that has nothing else to do with sony than money.
 
Do they really think this wasn't a one-off success? Even similar AR games won't gain as much traction in the future as Pokemon Go did, let alone talk about "mobile games" of different genres.
 
Do they really think this wasn't a one-off success? Even similar AR games won't gain as much traction in the future as Pokemon Go did, let alone talk about "mobile games" of different genres.

Great point but this is sony we are talking about.

Their arrogance won't allow them to leave it be, they think they can come in 2nd and do it better.

This will probably flop hard if I was a guessing man but who knows.
 
Do they really think this wasn't a one-off success? Even similar AR games won't gain as much traction in the future as Pokemon Go did, let alone talk about "mobile games" of different genres.
It's hard not to believe they won't be one of many trying to emulate that success by making games that are nearly identical.

So now we have the tons of Minecraft clones on mobile, and soon we'll get tons of Pokémon Go clones. It's amazing how many companies and individuals have zero sense of sound/sane business practice.
 
Better idea, how about supporting your existing mobile gaming platform instead of pursuing yet another pointless venture that'll cost way too money and not be anywhere near as profitable as you could hope. The PSVita had such a VR function, but Sony did NOTHING with it, heck they've done little to nothing with the Vita in general, instead said they would rely on third party developers to take on the platform, which just never happened.
 
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