During an investor meeting, Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida and Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan took the time to answer several questions. Most of them focused on the company’s upcoming projects, and particularly with regard to the PlayStation. In this regard, Kenichiro Yoshida and Jim Ryan have agreed to talk about a future that is more socially oriented, and mobile.
It was this last point that mainly caught my attention. Jim Ryan seemed particularly excited about moving beyond console frontiers. Before explaining what Sony’s ambitions are with mobile games, he used the example of Horizon Zero Dawn and Predator, two games released by Sony Interactive Entertainment that were released to PC last year.
Sony takes on mobile games
This time, Sony plans to repeat the experience by reaching out not only to PC gamers but also to mobile gaming enthusiasts. Jim Ryan justifies this decision by comparing the value of the two markets. On the one hand, we find the stability of the game console market which weighs more than 62 billion dollars in 2020, and on the other hand the mobile telephony market which is only increasing and now exceeds 121 billions of dollars.
So far, neither Jim Ryan nor Kenichiro Yoshida have announced which licenses may be adapted for mobile. However, if you take a look at the Sony Interactive Entertainment catalog, you can easily see which games would be the most suitable. We think in particular of a car game like Gran Turismo, or games that could embed VR like Little Big Planet. A Ratchet & Clank in platform game mode should also be possible.
As Jim Ryan clarified, mobile support is just one of many ways to diversify Sony’s business. The Japanese firm is also interested in cinema with in particular the adaptation of Uncharted in film.