You may not need a PlayStation to play PlayStation in the future

This story about PlayStation's expanding horizons, boiled down, in 1:41 minutes.

What's the fuss?

The mobile gaming market looms large over the console and PC market in terms of users and sales. It seems that PlayStation is taking the hint, acknowledging the possibility of transferring some of their historical franchises to mobile games.

The situation

High-quality exclusive franchises are what makes PlayStation, well, PlayStation. Their landmark IPs such as The Last of Us, Ratchet & Clank, and Uncharted have become so culturally significant that many of them are making their way to the big screen. Historically, PlayStation has been famously possessive with their proprietary franchises, ensuring that you need to own their console in order to play their games. Like it or not, this strategy has clearly worked out for them in terms of brand loyalty.

Having said that, it was a surprise to hear that during a Q&A session during Sony's most recent investor relations day that the company plans to bring some of its "iconic IP" to mobile phones next year following its success/profitability porting their games to PC. This announcement follows a spotted job advert by Sony back in April for a business unit dedicated to adapting their games to modern phones. Although it's currently unknown which specific titles will be carried over, they seem to be quite serious about the move. 

Boiling it down

Mobile gaming is, stereotypically, the home of casual games such as Candy Crush. The ability to play these usually-social games anywhere in short sittings, while not having to drop loads of money on a gaming PC, are the key components to their mass appeal. Despite the fact that many "core" gamers dismiss playing games on phones, the gaming mobile market is the most successful segment generating $121 billion worldwide in 2020, beating out the console and PC markets combined. As a result, many traditional game studios are treating the mobile space like a gold rush by feverishly creating or porting their games to the platform. 

The quality of modern mobile games is nothing to sneeze at either. Hardcore mobile gamers, who typically exist in the SEA (Southeast Asia) region, can enjoy games that parallel full PC games such as Fortnite and League of Legends: Wild Rift in terms of content. Not only do these games themselves rake in a ton of money but they can also act as a vehicle to introduce an entirely new audience to their existing portfolio, ultimately creating new fans altogether.

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