In a significant effort to go beyond consoles, Sony set established a specialised PlayStation mobile gaming business.
Savage Game Studios, a mobile game company with offices in Helsinki and Berlin, was also bought, according to Sony on Monday.
The newest console manufacturer to take a significant move into mobile gaming is Sony. Xbox, Microsoft’s game division, has also started to make tentative forays into smartphones. Nintendo has also been putting a lot of work into the smaller screen gaming format over the past three years.
The Future
As part of a significant effort to go beyond consoles, Sony established a specialised PlayStation mobile gaming division.
On Monday, the Japanese gaming behemoth unveiled PlayStation Studios Mobile Division, claiming it will function independently of the console market.
Savage Game Studios, a mobile game company with offices in Helsinki and Berlin, was also bought, according to Sony on Monday.
The decision was made following a challenging second quarter for Sony’s gaming sector and the company’s revision of its full-year earnings prediction as the Covid-induced boom, during which people were confined to their homes playing video games, starts to slow down.
Additionally, Sony’s supply chain continues to have problems and it is unable to match the demand for its newest PlayStation 5 console.
Thanks to the PlayStation, Sony has controlled the console industry for a while. However, the business is currently attempting to diversify. The Japanese gaming juggernaut said this year that it will distribute around 50% of games on PC and mobile by 2025, an increase from the current quarter.
Serkan Toto, CEO of Tokyo-based game industry consultant Kantan Games, told CNBC that for that to happen, Sony needs to place significant wagers on mobile gaming.
And there is a great potential. According to Newzoo, the $196.8 billion games business has a 27% market share for consoles and a 50% market share for smartphones.
Sony’s mobile strategy
As part of its recent acquisition effort to speed up the creation of games for several platforms, Sony has added Savage Game Studios to its portfolio.
The CEO of PlayStation Studios, Hermen Hulst, stated that “PlayStation Studios must continue to grow and broaden our offering beyond console, bringing fantastic new games to more people than ever before.” “Another significant step toward that aim is the hiring of the brilliant team at Savage Game Studios.”
Savage Game Studios is developing a “unannounced new AAA mobile live service action game,” according to Sony. A blockbuster-style game is typically referred to informally as a “triple A” game. A live service game is often one whose creators regularly update and add content to increase its lifespan and bring in money over time.
According to Daniel Ahmad, senior analyst at Niko Partners, there is a market for well-known games on smaller screens “if done effectively,” as seen by the success of Call of Duty Mobile and Diablo Immortal on mobile, both of which were first created for console and PC.
According to Toto of Kantan Games, Sony’s mobile approach would probably rely heavily on its enormous intellectual property (IP) collection while also emphasising the creation of particular games for smaller devices.
Sony is quite likely to push companies to create new franchises for smart devices from start in addition to porting existing PlayStation IPs to mobile, according to Toto.
Chances of success
The newest console manufacturer to take a significant move into mobile gaming is Sony. Xbox, Microsoft’s game division, has also started to make tentative forays into smartphones. Nintendo has also been putting a lot of work into the smaller screen gaming format over the past three years.
Around the world, Sony will compete with businesses it hadn’t really dealt with previously, especially Chinese goliaths Tencent and NetEase, two of the biggest names in mobile gaming.
Toto, though, claimed that Sony still has a good chance of succeeding.
“The market for mobile gaming is oversaturated. Nowadays, app shops have over 1 million games available. But even if they are newcomers, players like Sony might succeed because of their strength, Toto said CNBC.
“There aren’t many businesses out there like Sony, with such strong branding, a wide variety of high-performing studios, and a treasure mine of valuable IPs,”
