Sony appears to be stepping into the mobile device ring once again with the announcement that they are creating a new studio specifically to create mobile games. Opening up on April 1st, ForwardWorks Corporation will have the goal of creating iOS and Android versions of popular PlayStation IPs. There are still no announcements yet on exactly what IPs will be seeing releases or what ForewardWorks will be working on.
This isn't Sony's first foray into the mobile space. Back in 2012 they introduced PlayStation Mobile: a framework for mobile games and a special storefront for games made using it. These games would be compatible with PlayStation controllers and appear on special phones that would have controllers built into them. They were also available for purchase on PlayStation TVs and PlayStation Vitas. Yet the service never caught on and the storefront was closed in July of last year. In September the service was truly dead as Sony closed off the ability to download past purchases.
Sony has also had some attempts at making mobile versions of some of their IPs. In 2013, with the launch of the PlayStation 4 and its launch title Knack, they released the match-three puzzle game Knack's Quest on iOS and Android platforms. This game allowed you to collect rewards that you could then send back to Knack and use in that game. LittleBigPlanet also saw a spin-off in the form of an infinite runner game called Run, Sackboy, Run! Similarly, Ratchet and Clank had its own infinite runner spin-off named Ratchet and Clank: Before the Nexus. A couple games, like CounterSpy and Bentley's Hackpack even got ports to mobile devices. Sony also offers some apps that allow you to send messages over PlayStations or use remote play features on your phone.
What is your thoughts on ForwardWorks? Do you think Sony should bother with more mobile versions of their IPs? Or should they look elsewhere? Let us know in the comments!
