Sony wants to aggressively enter the mobile gaming marketplace

In an interview with Financial Times, Sony CEO Kaz Hirai said Sony wants to aggressively enter the mobile gaming marketplace, mainly due to the success of the Pokémon Go augmented reality app.

“[Mobile gaming] is something we are aggressively getting into,” the Sony chief executive told Financial Times during the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin, Germany. “It’s quite a shift from being just a console-based business to being on mobile phones as well.”

Both Sony and Nintendo have kept their intellectual properties outside of the mobile gaming smartphone atmosphere. Nintendo has relied mainly on its own Nintendo 3DS devices to prosper, while Sony has already abandoned bringing PlayStation titles to its own Xperia lineup of Android devices. However, Nintendo has seen a start on devices with Miitomo and Pokémon Go.

“Pokémon Go is a real game-changer. I’m very interested in the fact that it has the potential to really change the way people move, literally,” Hirai said.

While Hirai has seen success with sales of its PlayStation 4 console, he recognizes the importance of the mobile gaming market in Japan. The Financial Times post says “The Japanese spend more on mobile games per capita than any other nation in the world, followed by South Korea and China.” The company is already working on mobile gaming since the creation of its studio ForwardWorks Corporation in March 2016.

[Source]: Financial Times: Sony makes move on mobile gaming.

[Photo]: Sony Press Centre EU: Kaz Hirai – IFA 2016.