According to Sony’s president and CEO Jim Ryan, Sony is preparing to reveal some of its plans to bring its major IPs (intellectual property) to mobile devices.
In an interview with Axios, Ryan explained that Sony’s IP portfolio is very strong and it would be a mistake to hide that strength from the PlayStation community, but Ryan wasn’t too frank when it came to the details. When asked by Axios whether Sony would like to buy studios or develop in-house expertise on mobile games, Ryan said that they are working on several models to open up mobile and that the first fruits of this will be seen sooner than expected.
PlayStation’s plans to expand into mobile gaming market were also seen in a job advert in April 2021. This job advert sought someone to become Head of Mobile at PlayStation, with focus on successfully adapting PlayStation’s most popular game franchises for mobile devices.
More recently, Jim Ryan reportedly said in an investor relations presentation that Sony will begin rolling out some of its iconic PlayStation IPs to mobile devices in “FY21.” As a result of this statement, it means that we can see some of PlayStation’s biggest games on smartphones before the fiscal year running to March 2022.
What awaits the players in this process?
What games Sony will offer when it enters the mobile gaming market is another question. Sony may want to focus on its most popular series, like God of War: Ragnarok, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, and Horizon Forbidden West, coming to PlayStation 5, or it may turn to its old but popular games.
While the company has plans for the smartphone market in place, we don’t expect to see many exclusive announcements from Sony at E3 2021. This is because Sony will not be attending the show, which will take place between 12 and 15 June this year. The show will feature presentations from publishers such as Nintendo, Ubisoft, Square Enix, and Microsoft, and will be presented entirely online for the first time.
