As part of Sony’s push into mobile gaming, the company has formed a PlayStation Studios Mobile Division that will operate separately from console game development. According to a press release, the new team will create mobile games with “new and existing PlayStation IP.”
According to The Verge, Sony’s move to form a mobile gaming division aligns with the company’s overall goal of extending its IP to PC and mobile games, as well as TV series and movies. Earlier this year, Sony announced that it wants half of its games to be on PC and mobile by 2025, with Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan stating that it could result in a “significant growth in the number of people who play our games.” The company’s also looking to expand into live service games — games like Fortnite, Rocket League, or Destiny 2 that are continually updated to keep players interested — with its $3.6 billion acquisition of Bungie.
Sony’s most recent acquisition is Savage Game Studios, done to help fill out its new mobile division. The Savage Game Studios co-founders previously worked at Zynga, Insomniac, and Wargaming. It doesn’t look like the studio launched any games just yet, but according to VentureBeat, it received $4.4 million in funding for a mobile shooter game last year. The press release expands on this a bit, noting that the studio is currently working on “an unannounced new AAA live service action game,” but doesn’t offer any additional details on what to expect.
Hermen Hulst, the head of PlayStation Studios, said via Twitter that the company is “proud” of its “upcoming releases on PC,” which should give gamers without a Playstation console a chance to experience games like Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection and Marvel’s Spider-Man. “Our mobile gaming efforts will be similarly additive, providing more ways for more people to engage with our content,” he said, “and striving to reach new audiences unfamiliar with PlayStation and our games.”
According to The Verge, more major game companies are looking to bring their games to mobile, a tactic that has proved profitable for some studios so far. In June, data from Sensor Tower showed that the mobile version of Genshin Impact raked in $154 million in gross revenue, with PUBG Mobile and Pokémon Go close behind. Take-Two tapped into the mobile market with its acquisition of Zynga in January, while Activision plans to bring Call of Duty Warzone to mobile as well.
—
Photo Credit: Sergei Elagin / Shutterstock.com