Sony Announces Entry Into Smartphone Gaming Space With New Company 'ForwardWorks'

[MacRumors]

Sony is forming a new company, ForwardWorks, that will be focused on providing gamers with "full-fledged game titles" on their smartphone (via The Verge). ForwardWorks will begin operations on April 1, the same day that Sony has announced of all of its various PlayStation arms are set to be joined under the unified umbrella brand Sony Interactive Entertainment.

The new company plans to create gaming experiences for users in Japan and Asia, but the company has hinted that there's a possibility for expansion into other territories after initial launches in those countries. While ForwardWorks has yet to confirm the specific smartphone operating systems it will be launching games on, it did tease the content of the upcoming mobile experiences, which will "leverage the intellectual property" of Sony's vast catalogue of well-known characters and franchises to use in each title.

ForwardWorks will leverage the intellectual property of the numerous PlayStation® dedicated software titles and its gaming characters as well as the knowledge and know-how of gaming development expertise which was acquired over the years with PlayStation® business to provide gaming application optimized for smart devices including smartphones* to users in Japan and Asia. The company will aim to deliver users with opportunity to casually enjoy full-fledged game titles in the new field of the smart device market.

The exact franchises in question that the Tokyo-based company plans to focus on have yet to be confirmed, but the terminology of the announcement suggests that ForwardWorks will be going a more traditional gaming route in transplanting its characters onto mobile than Nintendo has. Sony has tried to break into the smartphone game space before, specifically on Android, but the focus of its past initiative was more of a cross-platform synergy with the company's game-ready PlayStation Vita handheld.

A shift to smartphone-only games is interesting, especially considering the library of classic franchises ForwardWorks could employ in clever ways to make up for the lack of tactile controller inputs. Nintendo has made a similar promise recently regarding the use of its most popular characters in upcoming mobile games, but its first game, Miitomo, has left most fans disappointed due to its sole focus on character creation and social network-skewing gameplay.

Article Link: Sony Announces Entry Into Smartphone Gaming Space With New Company 'ForwardWorks'

 

[freepomme]

Well, that's good. The mobile gaming industry certainly needs sprucing up.

 

[machpost]

While I'm pretty sure it's not a Sony property per se, I'd LOVE to see the old Crash Bandicoot titles ported to iOS and tvOS.

 

[earthTOmitchel]

While I'm pretty sure it's not a Sony property per se, I'd LOVE to see the old Crash Bandicoot titles ported to iOS and tvOS.

Ya since it's been under Activision they released those Nitro Kart games on iOS but would definitely love the actual OG games to make their way over that'd be incredible:') Ratchet and Clank too.

 

[Hermes Monster]

I'm still waiting for Nintendo's offerings!

 

[thatanonymoususer]

iOS developers/the platform itself needs to work on some form of backwards compatibility testing or compatibility modes for these complex games. It's a lot of programming to go through to find that they don't work on the next version of iOS.

I see that BioShock is in that picture, but that was on the AppStore briefly along with titles like Monster Hunter and Mass Effect.

I don't think that AAA games can be made for a platform that only lets their games work for one year vs handheld consoles that make their game work indefinitely. I can go out and buy a 2004 Nintendo DS game and expect it to work in my N3DS, but I can't expect a game I bought while iOS 8.4 was out to work now.

If you purchased Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on launch day and kept your iOS device updated, you would have only had 14 months to complete the game before the iOS 9 update broke it.

 

[Glassed Silver]

iOS developers/the platform itself needs to work on some form of backwards compatibility testing or compatibility modes for these complex games. It's a lot of programming to go through to find that they don't work on the next version of iOS.

I see that BioShock is in that picture, but that was on the AppStore briefly along with titles like Monster Hunter and Mass Effect.

I don't think that AAA games can be made for a platform that only lets their games work for one year vs handheld consoles that make their game work indefinitely. I can go out and buy a 2004 Nintendo DS game and expect it to work in my N3DS, but I can't expect a game I bought while iOS 8.4 was out to work now.

If you purchased Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on launch day and kept your iOS device updated, you would have only had 14 months to complete the game before the iOS 9 update broke it.

This and DRM are the key reasons why I moved away from iOS as anything like a gaming platform.

Solitaire and similar classics as well as novelty "typical mobile games" that I don't care about either way aside, there is only Hearthstone I seriously enjoy on my iPad and that's only because the game is running on-server anyways, so my cards stay in my account instead of a locked-down device that is very much no computer-replacement for me personally.

And yes, I'm aware that Hearthstone itself has a lot of longevity problems, the key reason being it's always-online which is a shame.

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[TrueBlou]

iOS developers/the platform itself needs to work on some form of backwards compatibility testing or compatibility modes for these complex games. It's a lot of programming to go through to find that they don't work on the next version of iOS.

I see that BioShock is in that picture, but that was on the AppStore briefly along with titles like Monster Hunter and Mass Effect.

I don't think that AAA games can be made for a platform that only lets their games work for one year vs handheld consoles that make their game work indefinitely. I can go out and buy a 2004 Nintendo DS game and expect it to work in my N3DS, but I can't expect a game I bought while iOS 8.4 was out to work now.

If you purchased Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on launch day and kept your iOS device updated, you would have only had 14 months to complete the game before the iOS 9 update broke it.

It is definitely an issue, unfortunately it's one that shouldn't really exist at all.

With each revision of iOS, as we all know, Apple introduce new features, tweak or completely abandon old ones. It can mean a lot of work for us to keep apps up to date and running nicely. Obviously the more complex the app, the higher the potential for a good deal of work required.

Conversely though, apps which are built completely around Apples own technologies and don't require any, or very little, in the way of complex third party libraries or backend solutions tend to work with little or no changes.

I've got games that I released years ago (no longer on sale thankfully) which use nothing but that which is included in the iOS SDK and I can fire them up in Xcode, install them on my iPhone and they just work even now.

But like I say, the bigger and more complex the game and particularly the bigger the company. As they then want to cram it full of all of their own libraries to track user activities and tie into their own custom built gaming portals and so on. All of which means there's more work to be done keeping things up to date and the bigger companies often just won't pony up the cash to let the development teams do the work. So the issue isn't really changes that Apple make, so much as the greed and reluctance of companies to spend money, dedicate time and resources to support their user base.

You could of course vote with your wallet. If a developer/company has a bad track record of supporting us, the consumer, don't spend money on their products. Yes, that includes my own apps, though I do my best to keep them up and running for as long as possible. And make them aware of your displeasure at their actions.


*Edit*
Dear god I can waffle on. I only came in here to say, oh goody, more quickly made, in-app purchase stuffed cash grab games incoming.

 

[Skika]

I love my Vita. Apart from neko atsume i abandoned gaming on phones because mostly the games suck and touch screen controls too.

 

[TomaxXamot]

Nintendo's characters are so much more recognizable than Sony's. I can name about 4 of the characters in the image. I'm a Nintendo fan, admittedly, but I'm assuming it's the same for most people? I'm sure the Smash Bros games over the years have played a significant part in this.

 

[macduke]

ForwardWorks will leverage the intellectual property of the numerous PlayStation® dedicated software titles and its gaming characters as well as the knowledge and know-how of gaming development expertise which was acquired over the years with PlayStation® business to provide gaming application optimized for smart devices including smartphones* to users in Japan and Asia.

Well that was a mouthful of business speak run-on sentence.

The company will aim to deliver users with opportunity to casually enjoy full-fledged game titles in the new field of the smart device market.

Oh I get what you do now.

I'm pretty stoked about this. Mobile devices are starting to surpass last-gen consoles in RAW horsepower. This is an area ripe for expansion over the coming years. I hope Sony and Nintendo are able to work with Apple to create a premium gaming section on the app store with a minimum price floor. This is really needed to create a sustainable ecosystem for AAA titles.

They also need to work out ways to provide larger app installs. Perhaps a model such as the Apple TV 4, but instead while you're playing through a level (which might take 20-30 minutes) it could be downloading the next level in the background. Or maybe queue up a couple so you're less likely to be caught without a connection and then download the next batch as you go.

It would also be fantastic if Sony and/or Nintendo could come out with some controller hardware for iOS—whether it be something that our devices slide into or simply a controller. I'd be willing to pay premium prices to buy something that essentially turns my iPhone into a PSP. Then they can have hardware and software sales. Hopefully this starts a war between Sony and Nintendo on mobile. Then we all win!

 

[sevarre]

While I'm pretty sure it's not a Sony property per se, I'd LOVE to see the old Crash Bandicoot titles ported to iOS and tvOS.

That would be AMAZING. Almost bought a PS TV for that sole reason, but it still seems unclear whether or not you are able to play Crash on PS TV in NA.

 

[Jimmy James]

Oh how I would like to see Gran Turismo on iOS.

 

[Viper2005]

If you purchased Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on launch day and kept your iOS device updated, you would have only had 14 months to complete the game before the iOS 9 update broke it.

I don't get this. Don't the game developers update their app frequently enough to cover changes in iOS?

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

I'm a Sony fan for years.

 

[machinamachine]

Because backward won't...

 

[thatanonymoususer]

I don't get this. Don't the game developers update their app frequently enough to cover changes in iOS?

It depends on the developer. GameLoft removes a lot of games from the AppStore, but they tend to program them well enough that they keep working. I have the Hero of Sparta games that I got with my 2nd Gen iPod Touch, and they still work well enough.

I think that CapCom put juuuuuust enough of a shell around the PSP Monster Hunter Freedom Unite binary to get it to work (think something like wine to run Windows programs on Mac), but then abandoned ship when iOS 9 came around.

Square Enix does something similar with their Final Fantasy games, but they at least put in the effort to update their games as new iOS versions come out. Niantic/Google also does something similar with Ingress, which is why you can't play Ingress if you install a new full iOS version beta during the pre-release cycle. They only make a Java version and use a wrapper to make the Java app work on iOS.

It's just extremely disappointing when a developer or company just drops the whole thing so soon after the game is released. iOS isn't like other platforms where you can just switch between versions to get it to work. It rewards users with being more secure because it doesn't let apps rely on insecure API's, but it does tend to hurt the longevity of apps in the AppStore.

It would be nice to enforce Apple-only API's better so that it's not a problem, but until developers are forced to send in their source code (which will likely never happen for intellectual property reasons), Apple won't really be able to test for compliance.