Sony Corporation will be releasing up to six of its classic "PlayStation" games to smartphones in Japan starting April 2017. The company allegedly hopes to follow the footsteps - and rousing success - of rival Nintendo, which claimed supremacy in the mobile gaming market with "Pokemon GO."
Tomoki Kawaguchi, executive director of "ForwardWorks" - Sony's newly established studio to head its mobile gaming division - admitted that it's becoming difficult to reach users because of the smartphone boom. He is hopeful, however, that Sony can "make full use of the intellectual property" they own, and use the PlayStation franchise to their advantage.
Three of the more popular "PlayStation" games - "Everybody's Golf", "Wild Arms", and "PaRappa the Rapper" - will be among the first touted to make the shift from console to mobile, as per a Reuters report. "ForwardWorks" is also set to work hand-in-hand with "Nippon Ichi Software" to bring video games "Disgaea" and "Yomawari: Night Alone" to mobile phones.
Users in Japan and other Asian territories should be able see these games in their Apple and Google Android devices starting spring. Meanwhile, no official statement has been released on the timeframe for U.S. and other Western countries.
Financial Times reports that Sony is also developing an all-new dedicated "smartpad" that can link to tablets and smartphones to bring card games to life. Called "Project Field," this device use NFC-like wireless technology and gives a revolutionary spin on the way people play card games.
This is not the first time that Sony has tried to assert authority in the mobile gaming market. They have made several attempts in the past, but no real progress was evident. In 2012, Sony launched a platform called "PlayStation Mobile" to recreate the gaming experience on Android phones and the PS Vita, but the service was shut down after a mere three years.
Sony is still very much active in the home video game console industry. Earlier in November, it released a plethora of games for its PlayStation 4 Pro such as "NBA 2k17" and "The Elder Scrolls Online", as reported by Jobs & Hire.
