It’s nearly impossible for Sony to create a Playstation or PSP phone offering the same controls and same games as either device. Instead, Sony seems to be pushing for a different kind of mobile gaming altogether, using tablets and phones as the hardware for a new casual gaming platform.
“Mobile gaming is a very important business area for us,” said Sony’s chief financial officer Masaru Kato, according to a transcription of an earnings call provided by Seeking Alpha. “We started out with the PSP that was our first mobile gaming console, but since then the market as you know has expanded into bigger arenas; gaming on mobile phones, gaming on tablets and on certain mobile devices.
“The PSP being a proprietary platform was more concentrated I’d say on the core gaming segment than the light game, but now we are addressing that market as well,” Kato added. “I can not be specific as to how we will introduce new product to address these markets, but one thing I can say is that we have those markets addressed and we will come out with products and services to capture the broader gaming market.”
A transcription by Engadget adds the following: “As for the tablet … obviously as a mobile strategy, this occupies a very important position. On one hand there is PC, and on the other hand there is joint venture with Ericsson on smartphone and for the games devices. And tablets fall somewhere in between.
“It is true Apple has led the market, but when we are to enter the market we would like to put a Sony character onto a new product – and that is the effort we are making right now. Therefore I think you can hope for a very good product to come out.”
Engadget read this mostly as a quasi-confirmation of the purported Playstation Phone photos they leaked last week — which was then denied, then not quite denied, then ignored — but I come away from the call with something quite different.
The PSP is, as Kato says, a dedicated mobile device for core gamers. It’s not a phone replacement. The PSP/Playstation’s analog sticks will never slide underneath a mobile phone’s screen without making the device incredibly thick; Sony can replace them with a touchpad, but then it’s really a derivative experience.
On the other hand, smartphones and tablets open devices up to all sorts of hardware possibilities that the current PSP doesn’t have: accelerometers and gyroscopes, 3G networking, etc.
This is the market Apple’s dominating in mobile, that Nintendo opened up on the console, and that Microsoft is trying to enter by bringing Xbox Live games to Windows Phone 7.
It’s a natural move for Sony: why make an Ericsson Android gaming smartphone that wedges the six-year-old PSP platform inside it when you can make Android gaming smartphones, feature phones and tablets that bring something new (for Sony) and competitive (with Apple and Microsoft) to the market?
If we’re getting wild with it, as long as we’re talking Android, why not bring a similar game platform as applications for Sony’s products on Google TV? Sony games without having to buy a Sony box — which might explain that giant controller.
There will always be a market for dedicated mobile gaming, which is why the PSP will continue to develop and add features and compete with Nintendo. But in mobile, the market for casual gaming is larger by orders of magnitude. Sony has all of the tools to reach that space and offer something both competitive and compelling.
PS Phone: Sony admits “new product” [Eurogamer]
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