Sony pledges to launch over five iOS games by March 2018

Sony on Friday revealed that it's developing over five new games for iOS and Android, competing against Nintendo for a share of the increasingly important mobile gaming world.

The games will be released during a year ending March 2018, under Sony's mobile-oriented ForwardWorks subsidiary, CNBC said. Titles and content aren't public, but Sony will initially launch in Japan and other Asian countries.

Japan, in fact, is likely the main reason for Sony stepping into phone games, since mobile revenues account for over half of the country's games market. Currently most of Sony's gaming revenues come from its PlayStation 4 console, including games and accessories.

The company does have a handheld of its own, the PlayStation Vita, but the device is five years old and almost exclusively gaming-focused, often making it redundant for people with high-end smartphones.

Sony's efforts will lag significantly behind Nintendo, which has already released some titles and is planning to debut Super Mario Run on iOS later this year.

11 Comments

apple ][ 9225 comments · 13 Years

About 8 years ago

AppleInsider said:

Sony's efforts will lag significantly behind Nintendo, which has already released some titles and is planning to debut Super Mario Run on iOS later this year.

I'm happy that Nintendo is finally releasing for iOS, I've been saying that they should for many years now, but Super Mario Run seems to be a stripped down game, that can be played with one hand. The photos of the game show it being played vertically on a phone, even though it is a horizontal scroller.

Sony should release full games, and release some of their greatest hits that they have had before.

It would be cool to see games like Crash Bandicoot on iOS for example. There have been many big hits on Playstation, and Sony has a whole bunch of games to choose from.

wood1208 2929 comments · 10 Years

About 8 years ago

Sony should also release/port games on TVOS/AppleTV platform. One more platform to make money in Apple's ecosystem.

Roger_Fingas 148 comments · 8 Years

About 8 years ago

apple ][ said:

AppleInsider said:

Sony's efforts will lag significantly behind Nintendo, which has already released some titles and is planning to debut Super Mario Run on iOS later this year.

I'm happy that Nintendo is finally releasing for iOS, I've been saying that they should for many years now, but Super Mario Run seems to be a stripped down game, that can be played with one hand. The photos of the game show it being played vertically on a phone, even though it is a horizontal scroller.

Sony should release full games, and release some of their greatest hits that they have had before.

It would be cool to see games like Crash Bandicoot on iOS for example. There have been many big hits on Playstation, and Sony has a whole bunch of games to choose from.

Some rare author commentary, but I wouldn't expect to see many full-scale games, except maybe for a few of those greatest hits. Sony wants you to own a PS4, and bigger productions also mean bigger pricetags, which is a problem in the mobile world given that many people complain about a game costing $10, never mind $40-60. There's also the interface problem, because a gamepad is so much better than a touchscreen in most cases, yet you can't count on an iPhone owner having one.

cali 3494 comments · 10 Years

About 8 years ago

apple ][ said:

AppleInsider said:

Sony's efforts will lag significantly behind Nintendo, which has already released some titles and is planning to debut Super Mario Run on iOS later this year.

I'm happy that Nintendo is finally releasing for iOS, I've been saying that they should for many years now, but Super Mario Run seems to be a stripped down game, that can be played with one hand. The photos of the game show it being played vertically on a phone, even though it is a horizontal scroller.

Sony should release full games, and release some of their greatest hits that they have had before.

It would be cool to see games like Crash Bandicoot on iOS for example. There have been many big hits on Playstation, and Sony has a whole bunch of games to choose from.

Sony hardly makes games. Crash is owned by a different company now and the game was terrible and forgettable.I don't see what the big deal is if these games are coming out for the Apple knockoffs also. At least Nintendo made their game iOS exclusive for a little while although I prefer Nintendo to be Apple exclusive forever.

Wait a minute, if Mario Run only uses single taps does this mean we might see an Apple TV version?

apple ][ 9225 comments · 13 Years

About 8 years ago

cali said:
Sony hardly makes games. Crash is owned by a different company now and the game was terrible and forgettable.

Yeah, I think that Naughty Dog was the one that was behind Crash, but maybe it was exclusive to playstation? I'm not sure about that.

As for the game being terrible and forgettable, I haven't played it in ages.

But I do remember liking that game when I played it on a Playstation 1 back in the day.

Come on, that game was pretty good, and I would go so far as to say that it was leaps and bounds above most other things at the time, and it was trend setting.

Pong looks like a joke today, but it is still a classic game. Same thing goes for many older games.