Sony chases mobile gaming in Pokemon Go slipstream

BERLIN — Sony has said it intends to push into mobile gaming, after watching from the sidelines as its console rival Nintendo scored big with its Pokemon Go augmented reality game.

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

Pokemon Go had been a “game-changer”, he added. “I’m interested in the fact that it has the potential to really change the way people move, literally.”

Players of the Nintendo game see animated characters on their smartphone screens superimposed over the real world. Mr Hirai said he wanted to add such AR capabilities to Sony’s stable of games. It was a “great innovative idea that’s going to lift all boats for the video game industry”, he said.

Notwithstanding Nintendo’s surprise hit, the two Japanese console competitors have been slow to join the mobile party. “Sony and Nintendo own their platforms and want to retain control and make as much money as possible from them,” said Mr Steve Bailey, gaming analyst at IHS Markit. “But the landscape has changed considerably. The threat from mobile is so big, they can no longer ignore it.”

Nintendo launched its first mobile app, Miitomo, in March.

Sony’s history in this sector of the gaming market has been more chequered. Several initiatives to put its PlayStation games on handheld consoles — and on to its own Xperia smartphones — have failed. “They have had an interest in it for five or six years but they haven’t got it right,” said Mr Jack Kent, mobile analyst at IHS Markit.

“The strategy was about selling more handsets or consoles, rather than making money from the games.”

Mr Hirai said he planned to tackle the problem from the ground up. “Mobile gaming is a very important part of the Japanese market and therefore we’ve created a wholly owned subsidiary that’s completely dedicated to mobile gaming. They’ll be coming out with titles,” he said.

Japan spends more on mobile games per capita than any other nation, followed by South Korea and China. Asia will be the primary focus of ForwardWorks, the new subsidiary.

Sony is still placing big bets on its PlayStation home console, with an upgraded, higher-end version, codenamed “Neo”, expected to launch next week.

The device will support ultra-high definition resolution and virtual reality, to dovetail with the launch of the PlayStation VR headset in October. Financial Times