Last year, Sony revealed that it is exploring the mobile market with “wonderful PlayStation franchises". Fast forward to today, we haven’t seen much of the results of that, but the company revealed in its corporate strategy meeting under the Game and Network Services portion that it has aggressive growth plans for mobile with a possibility of about 20% of its output being mobile by 2025. Sony also has plans to partner with respected, established, and successful mobile developers to extend franchises to more players and regions. It wants to remain faithful to the values of PlayStation, publish relevant external games, and also expand to cross-platform where relevant according to the slide. Over the years, we’ve already seen Sony’s own Journey, The Unfinished Swan, and more hit iOS through Annapurna Interactive. There are a few notable Sony titles that could be brought over to mobile already like Patapon or Loco Roco, but this will likely mean tie-in games or separate bespoke mobile releases. I hope we get a combination of both.
The expanding to cross platform where relevant is interesting because it could mean some live service games that likely come to PC, could also be on mobile. I’m certain Sony has seen how successful games have been on mobile with cross platform play as well. Genshin Impact is only available on PlayStation consoles outside mobile and PC as well as an example of a recent cross platform game that is very successful. Sony also details how its first-party portfolio could have up to 20% of its output be for mobile by 2025 with it growing through the next few years. Sony wants to go from console-centric to a future beyond the console for large elements of the community. Hopefully next year sees a proper MLB The Show game from Sony hit mobile as well since it is already on Nintendo Switch. We likely won’t see the same console game come to mobile, but a companion game that lets you earn things in the main console game would be a start. Check out the full Sony presentation with the mobile and PC segments detailed here. What would you like to see from Sony and PlayStation Studios on mobile barring older games ported over if that is being considered?
