Since Sony dropped its PS Vita, it knows it’s missing out on a lot of money. Gaming on mobile devices is all the rage, whether it’s on the small screen of an iPhone, or the larger screens of iPads.
The company is planning to take advantage of the pull of its big PlayStation exclusive titles, and launch their corresponding adapted versions for iOS and iPadOS. Great news, no doubt.
Sony plans to expand its efforts in developing games for mobile devices. It is recruiting programmers to adapt many PlayStation franchises to be playable on iPhone and iPad in the future.
Plan uncovered by a job ad
Job ads have been discovered seeking someone for the role of “Head of Mobile, PlayStation Studios, Sony Interactive Entertainment,” in California. The ad explains that the candidate will “lead all aspects of its game development expansion, from consoles and PC to mobile and live services,” but with a focus on “successfully adapting PlayStation’s most popular franchises for mobile.”
The successful candidate will also be responsible for “building and scaling a team of mobile developers,” and will serve as “the head of this new business unit within PlayStation Studios.” Of course, if they wanted to keep it under wraps, Sony’s head of employee hiring must have been in for quite a scolding.
The PlayStation Mobile publishing label already exists and works, and has spawned a few mobile titles, including “Run Sackboy!” and “Uncharted: Fortune Hunter” among others. It has also served as publisher for a few PC games based on PlayStation games, including “Horizon: Zero Dawn” and “Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.”
Sony previously had a more significant presence in mobile gaming, such as the Xperia Play smartphone and its PSP and PS Vita handheld game consoles. There is also the ability to play PlayStation games via an iPhone or iPad, using the Remote Play app to stream from a console over the network.
Sony wants to explore a path that Nintendo has already tried with fortune. In 2017, Nintendo began releasing iPhone games based on major franchises such as “Super Mario Run” and “Fire Emblem Heroes”, with very good acceptance by users.
