Sony announced today out of Tokyo that it will begin developing games for smartphones. This news comes a week after the Japanese launch of Nintendo’s first collaborative smartphone app Miitomo, produced with the help of DeNA, which was downloaded over a million times in its first three days. Revenue generated from smartphone games in Japan exceeds those generated from consoles and console games, primarily because the majority of people in Japan play their games in smaller chunks while commuting. That’s the reason games like Dragon Quest Builders among others might sell more copies on the PS Vita than on PS3 or PS4.
Sony has created a subsidiary called ForwardWorks, headed up by PlayStation chief Atsushi Morita (nephew of Sony co-founder Akio Morita), which will develop smartphone games based on Sony’s most iconic IPs. We don’t know yet whether Sony plans to bring these games to the States as well. According to a spokeswoman (via the WSJ ): “We decided to focus on Japan and Asia for this new initiative because the mobile games are especially large in these regions when compared with other markets.” We’ll be sure to update you as soon as we hear any more news or snag any footage of games in development.