The difficult truth for gaming console manufacturers and all the companies and suppliers attached to that industry is this – most people these days are casual gamers, and they play their games mostly on their smartphones because the apps are free to download and they bring their smartphones everywhere they go. This is stunting market growth for makers of dedicated gaming consoles like Sony and their PlayStation. So what is Sony left to do?
Well, Sony is certainly not giving up. The Japan-based company’s PlayStation unit, in cooperation with its subsidiary ForwardWorks, is planning to release five or six smartphone games from now until March 2018 in a concerted attempt to lure casual gamers to its high-end gaming platform. There were no specifics as to which games would be coming out, but we can expect titles from Sony’s IPs such as “Hot Shots Golf,” “The Last Guardian” and “I.Q.: Intelligent Qube.”
The PlayStation 4, Sony’s current gen gaming console, is actually doing relatively well in the global market. Official number say it has sold more than 40 million units since its introduction in 2013. Sony is actually struggling in its home market – Japan — where people are taking to smartphone-based games almost 200% more than they are playing on consoles.
This atmosphere in the gaming industry has caused Japanese giants Nintendo to stop pushing its Wii U console and jump right into the mix of smartphone gaming. It has teamed up with Apple to launch a Mario game with the latest iPhone, and has launched Miitomo – a social gaming app – before that.
