Sony CEO: We're "aggressively" getting back into mobile gaming

The giant success seen by Pokémon GO was bound to send ripples through the industry, and now we’re seeing some of those effects, and reactions, starting to take shape. One of those reactions comes from Sony, which announced it is looking to rejoin the mobile gaming market in an “aggressive” fashion.

Sony hasn’t been doing great as a company lately. Its media empire is suffering, its electronics division is doing the same – but one of the few bright spots in the company’s portfolio is its PlayStation and gaming division, which has seen record sales since the PS4 launch. Combine that with the huge explosion of Nintendo’s Pokémon GO, which reportedly raked in $440 million in a matter of months, and it’s easy to see why Sony decided to give mobile gaming another try.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Kaz Hirai, the company’s chief executive explained that Sony was getting ready to launch new mobile titles in Japan, followed by a wider launch if they’re successful. He argued that:

[Mobile gaming] is something we are aggressively getting into. 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 CEO then went on to extol the virtues of augmented or mixed reality, and how the technology has the potential to “lift all boats for the video game industry”.

Of course, this isn’t the first time Sony has tried to be a major player in the mobile gaming market. For years the company tried to make a splash in this field, first with its “PlayStation phone”, and later with the PlayStation titles exclusively made for its Xperia devices. Unfortunately, none of those efforts caught on, and the company was forced by the market to back down.

However, a new wave of mobile gaming seems to be on the rise now, and even though Pokémon GO’s numbers are falling quickly, the effect the title had on the industry will be long lasting.

That being said, Sony is also looking to attract even more classic console gamers to its platform, with the company unveiling a new PlayStation 4, expected to be the upgraded Neo, later this week.

Source: FT (Paywall)