Sony pledges to launch over five iOS games by March 2018

AppleInsider

Sony on Friday revealed that it's developing over five new games for iOS and Android, competing against Nintendo for a share of the increasingly important mobile gaming world.

The games will be released during a year ending March 2018, under Sony's mobile-oriented ForwardWorks subsidiary, CNBC said. Titles and content aren't public, but Sony will initially launch in Japan and other Asian countries.



Japan, in fact, is likely the main reason for Sony stepping into phone games, since mobile revenues account for over half of the country's games market. Currently most of Sony's gaming revenues come from its PlayStation 4 console, including games and accessories.



The company does have a handheld of its own, the PlayStation Vita, but the device is five years old and almost exclusively gaming-focused, often making it redundant for people with high-end smartphones.



Sony's efforts will lag significantly behind Nintendo, which has already released some titles and is planning to debut Super Mario Run on iOS later this year.

apple ][

AppleInsider said:

Sony's efforts will lag significantly behind Nintendo, which has already released some titles and is planning to debut Super Mario Run on iOS later this year.

I'm happy that Nintendo is finally releasing for iOS, I've been saying that they should for many years now, but Super Mario Run seems to be a stripped down game, that can be played with one hand. The photos of the game show it being played vertically on a phone, even though it is a horizontal scroller.

Sony should release full games, and release some of their greatest hits that they have had before.

It would be cool to see games like Crash Bandicoot on iOS for example. There have been many big hits on Playstation, and Sony has a whole bunch of games to choose from.

wood1208

Sony should also release/port games on TVOS/AppleTV platform. One more platform to make money in Apple's ecosystem.

edited October 2016

roger_fingas

apple ][ said:

AppleInsider said:

Sony's efforts will lag significantly behind Nintendo, which has already released some titles and is planning to debut Super Mario Run on iOS later this year.

I'm happy that Nintendo is finally releasing for iOS, I've been saying that they should for many years now, but Super Mario Run seems to be a stripped down game, that can be played with one hand. The photos of the game show it being played vertically on a phone, even though it is a horizontal scroller.

Sony should release full games, and release some of their greatest hits that they have had before.

It would be cool to see games like Crash Bandicoot on iOS for example. There have been many big hits on Playstation, and Sony has a whole bunch of games to choose from.

Some rare author commentary, but I wouldn't expect to see many full-scale games, except maybe for a few of those greatest hits. Sony wants you to own a PS4, and bigger productions also mean bigger pricetags, which is a problem in the mobile world given that many people complain about a game costing $10, never mind $40-60. There's also the interface problem, because a gamepad is so much better than a touchscreen in most cases, yet you can't count on an iPhone owner having one.

cali

apple ][ said:

AppleInsider said:

Sony's efforts will lag significantly behind Nintendo, which has already released some titles and is planning to debut Super Mario Run on iOS later this year.

I'm happy that Nintendo is finally releasing for iOS, I've been saying that they should for many years now, but Super Mario Run seems to be a stripped down game, that can be played with one hand. The photos of the game show it being played vertically on a phone, even though it is a horizontal scroller.

Sony should release full games, and release some of their greatest hits that they have had before.

It would be cool to see games like Crash Bandicoot on iOS for example. There have been many big hits on Playstation, and Sony has a whole bunch of games to choose from.

Sony hardly makes games. Crash is owned by a different company now and the game was terrible and forgettable.


I don't see what the big deal is if these games are coming out for the Apple knockoffs also. At least Nintendo made their game iOS exclusive for a little while although I prefer Nintendo to be Apple exclusive forever.

Wait a minute, if Mario Run only uses single taps does this mean we might see an Apple TV version?

apple ][

cali said:

Sony hardly makes games. Crash is owned by a different company now and the game was terrible and forgettable.

Yeah, I think that Naughty Dog was the one that was behind Crash, but maybe it was exclusive to playstation? I'm not sure about that.

As for the game being terrible and forgettable, I haven't played it in ages. 

But I do remember liking that game when I played it on a Playstation 1 back in the day.

Come on, that game was pretty good, and I would go so far as to say that it was leaps and bounds above most other things at the time, and it was trend setting.

Pong looks like a joke today, but it is still a classic game. Same thing goes for many older games.

apple ][

Roger_Fingas said:

Some rare author commentary, but I wouldn't expect to see many full-scale games, except maybe for a few of those greatest hits. Sony wants you to own a PS4, and bigger productions also mean bigger pricetags, which is a problem in the mobile world given that many people complain about a game costing $10, never mind $40-60. There's also the interface problem, because a gamepad is so much better than a touchscreen in most cases, yet you can't count on an iPhone owner having one.

I agree that Sony probably won't be releasing any of their newer games that costs $50 for iOS, but maybe they'll release some of their older ones? I'd be happy with that.

justinpe

Roger_Fingas said:

apple ][ said:

AppleInsider said:

Sony's efforts will lag significantly behind Nintendo, which has already released some titles and is planning to debut Super Mario Run on iOS later this year.

I'm happy that Nintendo is finally releasing for iOS, I've been saying that they should for many years now, but Super Mario Run seems to be a stripped down game, that can be played with one hand. The photos of the game show it being played vertically on a phone, even though it is a horizontal scroller.

Sony should release full games, and release some of their greatest hits that they have had before.

It would be cool to see games like Crash Bandicoot on iOS for example. There have been many big hits on Playstation, and Sony has a whole bunch of games to choose from.

Some rare author commentary, but I wouldn't expect to see many full-scale games, except maybe for a few of those greatest hits. Sony wants you to own a PS4, and bigger productions also mean bigger pricetags, which is a problem in the mobile world given that many people complain about a game costing $10, never mind $40-60. There's also the interface problem, because a gamepad is so much better than a touchscreen in most cases, yet you can't count on an iPhone owner having one.

I disagree. I think full-scale games priced between $10-$15 are going to become more and more popular. Sure, Sony likes selling PS4s, but their profit margins are nearly non-existent on hardware. They make most of their money by selling games. You have to consider that their potential market would increase substantially by developing for mobile. They have sold like 40-45 million PS4s, and there are 1 billion iPhones being used today. Say they sell a $60 game to 25% of PS4 owners.They net around $675 million. If they sell that same game for $10 to 25% of iOS users, they would net around $2.5 billion.

edited October 2016

lorin schultz

"Over five iOS games..." So... six?

Or does it mean at least five, and could be as many as seven million, eight hundred and twenty-two thousand, four hundred and nine?

Or is it actually meant to mean exactly five and the word "over" is meaningless in that sentence?

Or should I be concerned that this is all my brain was able to take away from this article and talk to my doctor about adjusting my dosage? I wonder if he'll specify the number of milligrams on the prescription as "over five."

Maybe I should stop mixing my orange juice with cough syrup and Eye of Newt.

airbubble

I would  to see 3 games in particular  (Intelligent Cube, Overboard & Snoopy The Red Baron) 
The Cube game would need an overhaul for today not just graphics, but sounds & personage. The others need to be HD quality too no dumb simple port of old!?
More importantly for Apple these games being brought over should be total platform "iOS to TV to Desktop.
Price wise for full platform maybe in 20 or more, for just iOS/TV or Desktop price could be 5 or 9 €$£.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZM9kTGFeko

http://https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb8MiAYOBHU

http://https//www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_3EhLNv6g8

suddenly newton

A good bet, in case this current console generation doesn't have the long legs of the last gen. Full disclosure: The PS4 has sold very strongly, but the Vita has not, and iPhones (and other flagship smartphones) have increased their raw CPU/GPU power relentlessly year over year, so it will be interesting to see what Sony releases in 2018-2019 on mobile. If they're smart, they'll take it seriously.

marvin

apple ][ said:

AppleInsider said:

Sony's efforts will lag significantly behind Nintendo, which has already released some titles and is planning to debut Super Mario Run on iOS later this year.

I'm happy that Nintendo is finally releasing for iOS, I've been saying that they should for many years now, but Super Mario Run seems to be a stripped down game, that can be played with one hand. The photos of the game show it being played vertically on a phone, even though it is a horizontal scroller.

Sony should release full games, and release some of their greatest hits that they have had before.

It would be cool to see games like Crash Bandicoot on iOS for example. There have been many big hits on Playstation, and Sony has a whole bunch of games to choose from.

Super Mario Run has some simplifications like auto-running forward and automatically jumping over enemies. In the following video at 2:23, Mario leap-frogs over the mushrooms without any input:



The only way to die would presumably be from falling in a hole, hitting some spikes/fire or a larger enemy. This style removes some of the challenges in typical Mario games like collecting all the coins in a single play and being able to jump on enemies multiple times. It still looks like it retains a lot of the identity of a full Mario game though and they have new social challenges. If it's priced at $5-10 with 10-15 levels, I think it would be ok value for money. It will be a pay upfront game they said.

Sony has done something similar with Ratchet and Clank on iOS:



They made an endless runner style game where you just move left/right and jump. Another franchise they have that would be suitable for iOS is Little Big Planet:



Sly Cooper might work ok and Jak and Daxter. Singstar karaoke, Patapon, Modnation Racers:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Interactive_Entertainment#Owned_franchises_and_properties

Full game releases would offer more fulfilling gameplay but they'd need dual controls: full control with hardware attached and more automatic controls with touch. The full Tomb Raider games were ported to iOS and they are just too hard to control, especially on the phone:



It's more satisfying when you have a lot of control because you feel like you are doing everything. Just sitting back while the game does most of the work and you occasionally tap a button can make it feel like your input in the game is redundant. There has to be a suitable balance between the player feeling like an important part of game and not being frustrated by the controls.

The fundamental issue, as I've mentioned a few times in the past, is simultaneous inputs. A touch screen gives you multi-touch for all fingers but while holding touch devices, you get 2 simultaneous inputs. Hardware controllers have 6-8. Developers don't have much option other than to make endless runners when that's the case. You either have to require the hardware controller, use dual-mode controls or have simpler controls. Until there's an official hardware controller for iOS that lots of people own, developers can't afford to require one. Dual-mode controls take more resources, especially when testing.