Sony hasn’t done much with the PlayStation game franchises unless you have Uncharted: fortune hunter, but that could change soon. Eurogamer possesses Note that Sony is hiring an executive at PlayStation Studios who would focus on making PlayStation’s “most popular franchises” available on mobile. Although the list unsurprisingly mentions neither titles nor deadlines, the new head of mobile would develop a three to five year strategy.
The company has a long history of trying to merge the PlayStation brand with phones, but with little success. Aside from a small number of games, Sony’s best-known effort is the Xperia Play – a “PlayStation phone” ahead of its time (witnesses to gaming phones like the ROG Phone 5) but a commercial flop. The name PlayStation Mobile is best associated with PC ports like Horizon Zero Dawn.
It’s not hard to see why Sony would pursue mobile. This could bring the PlayStation brand to a much larger audience and, of course, reap the benefits of in-app purchases. Titles like Fortnite, PUBG and Roblox owe much of their success to mobile gamers. The challenge, of course, is to execute this strategy. The games themselves have to adapt to mobile without losing what makes them special on your console. They might not be successful if they feel like watered down ports or cash receipts.