Pokémon GO's Success Has Convinced Sony To Perform About-Face On Mobile Gaming

I fully believe Sony was already way down this path long before Pokemon Go, but I also have no doubt Pokemon Go has indeed been a game changer in many ways across the industry and has convinced Sony more than ever that mobile is to be taken seriously.

@A01 doubtful

The problem is that it's been done now... Pokemon GO was to location based gaming what the Wiimote was to motion controls... it wasn't the first time it had been done, but it was the first time it had been done well enough to make it popular... after that, other companies would inevitably bring out their own takes on the same concept, which will do okay, but they'll never do as well.

Are we getting an Invizimals on smartphones now? Lmao

@Kirk Not sure how far down the road Sony was. They were hitting mobile hard with even an attempt at a gaming mobile hybrid device and it failed hard. Nothing they have done in the space has had any lasting significance and in trying to get profitable in the last couple years, I can imagine the whole thing on life support. Along comes Pokemon GO and ... too many $$$ to ignore.

@A01 End of this year? Um... no. At least in the US school is just starting up and word of mouth and competition is going to skyrocket. All it takes is a steady stream of simple updates to get people to come back over and over (so much untapped potential there). In my estimation, anyway. Some people will forget it of course, but completely forgotten is almost impossible. I mean... there's a 10 level Gym down the street to topple or better yet establish and so many Pokémon... I gotta catch em all!

Sony doesn't have any IP close to as valuable as Pokemon, for them to think they could reach that mainstream level of success is asinine. That being said, getting into the mobile market is inevitable for any video game company that wants to remain relevant in the Japanese market going into the future.

@aaronsullivan Yeah, that's possible too. But I was just meaning it was obviously heavily invested in mobile long before Pokemon Go came along (primarily with hardware), whether it was failing or not, and Pokemon Go is probably what convinced it simply to dive deeper into the dedicated mobile games aspect. But, I expect it would have eventually dipped its toes in those water regardless; I think Pokemon Go just acted as a [business] game changer for the company by making it a sure thing and an immediate thing. Basically, I'm just trying to say that this isn't a case of Sony just straight copying some genius move by Nintendo that Sony had hitherto never even considered or whatever, which is basically what a lot of people are going to now claim; it was clear Sony saw the future in mobile already (long before Nintendo even), and the success of Pokemon Go just cemented its original position that it was definitely worth pursuing, hard, and now. Or something like that.

You would think they would already be on this with the Xperia Phone.

Surely Sony lacks an IP with the selling power of Pokemon?

And we Nintendo fans should care about what Sony says/does, because...?

@Neon_Blues we can't bury our heads in the sand. Nintendo and Sony are both major players in the video game industry and one's actions clearly influence the other's. In this instance we get a nice bit of perspective about Pokémon Go's impact on the mobile market's perception by others.

@Neon_Blues because we're into more than just Nintendo stuff?

@A01 You clearly don't work with kids in the US. As an elementary school music teacher, it's evident Pokemon GO is still quite alive. Not nearly as big as launch, but it won't be forgoten come 2017

Ah... lamenting Sony as usual...
Abandon Sony completely.
Just Nintendo on the way.

I remember Sega doing something like this back in the days, and even Tiger Handheld devices...neither taking off. The only reason that Pokemon Go is becoming popular...is basically due to Pokemon. I don't see many others really taking off, and Miitomo seemed to lose interest rather quickly. Just like Angry Birds and Candy Crush, it'll last for a year or so, and then be forgotten by something else. I don't want either companies to really go this route...just want them to focus on consoles. Both nintendo and Sony are my favorite consoles right now and I don't care for or even want smartphones...can't stand cell phones all together.

Anyways, Sony and Nintendo seem to copy each other constantly, which still shows the love between both of them. Even in each others magazines (when there were both around) neither one of them bashed each other...they always praised each other. Nintendo has their IP's (which are better) but Sony also has great IP's (Ratchet, Jak, Sly, God Of War, Nathan Drake, Parappa, Medieval, Ape Escape). However, the only thing I can see Sony really doing this kind of Pokemon-Go-thing, is an Ape Escape type game...even though it would be funny to see them make a Parappa the Rapper Go Game! Imagine seeing people walk with a cell phone, then start dancing like morons to a rap out of nowhere!!!! I'd love to see that!!!!

@Haiassai As long as nintendo keeps on adding content to it, it'll be alive...but if they fail to, it will probably start to lower by the end of 2017. If their next console becomes a portable too, or if this kind of game ends up on 3DS, I can see it really taking off again.

I work in a middle school, and yeah...Pokemon is something that still has a large craze among kids...even somehow, middle aged people.

@JLPick agreed. Also if Niantic doesn't do more stupid stuff, it'll stay alive.

I had to correct an entire class when they pronounced Pokemon wrong

idc

Yuck, Pokemon go is ok I guess, but I can't stand the casual gamers on mobile phones. They have no Loyalty to game developers or to any game series. They just downloaded whatever is trending. Most of these people are fake gamers and video game companies really need to be cautious when trying to enter this market. Like I sad before no loyalty.

kinda seen this coming sony love to copy and say they didn't. think sony knows it only worked because it was pokemon, anything else would have failed to attract so many people.

So what, God of War AR?

Although, speaking of a franchise that single-handledly made me buy a Vita, if Atlus were to do an AR Persona, so that people could build Social Links by spending time with real people, that could be quite interesting.

@aaronsullivan @Kirk

Kirk is right on this one, Sony announced it's mobile subsidiary - the one that is being talked about in this article - in March 2016 BEFORE Pokemon Go released in July.

http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2016/03/sony_announces_studio_dedicated_to_making_mobile_games

Damo knows this, he works at Pushsquare as well as here, and just likes to produce headlines that will garner clicks, as I was discussing this morning w/ @faint I see Damo as NL's bad cop to TWs good cop. Hey, somebody's got to pay the bills, it's a business after all.

But the tile is totally misleading. Sony did not "perform an about face" if they announced it's mobile subsidiary in March b/c of Pokemon Go which didn't release until July. He is saying they are happy P Go performed well b/c they announced a company back in March that will more likely succeed b/c of that whole boats on a tide cliche`.

So yes, he is happy that Pokemon go is raising the tide, it will help his boat too, their boat they already built and launched back in March. P Go did not affect what they were doing, there is no about-face, he never says that, it's being misconstrued in/for the title.

Edit: I guess this link would help. It was incorporated April 1st, still before Go released and became huge.

http://www.sie.com/en/corporate/release/2016/160324.html

Sony are poop at mobile.

I have the perfect idea. They could make an AR game about "invisible animals". They could even put it on the Vita! You have to catch them and battle with them. There could be 10 based on tigers alone!

Oh. Nintendo's back in the game. Where did we go wrong?

playstation vita 2, confirmed!!

Ugh. UGH. So much mobile...

Sony?.....
Following Nintendo's innovative lead?.....
Again?.....

Who would have thought that would ever happen?

@Kirk
Sony had already considered it.
Sony had already invested in it.
Sony had then abandoned it deeming no potential in it.
Until Nintendo initiated Pokemon Go which has been another extraordinary success that will now be imitated.

Yes Sony will have considered mobile gaming. But they will know live in that on the lead of Nintendo, hence "perform an about face", a change of direction.

They had a direction, it was a firm no. That won't be an off the cuff no, it will be an analysed and carefully considered no.

Now Nintendo have innovated and yet again had resounding success in their respective market, Sony will now change direction to one in line with Nintendo and aim to replicate that success with a similar product.

Like nearly everything else they've ever done in the last 20 years.

A nice way to sugar-coat how they chickened out of the handheld market. Seriously, the Vita had potential, by virtue of being a pocket-size PS3. And yet they messed it up. How do you mess up selling a portable PS3?!?

Mobile versions of Locoroco and Patapon to go please, Sony.

Hey Nintendo did something amazing, better copy them!

@Meaty-cheeky
Same here. I don't like mobile games except Pokemon GO (Despite i'm not so interested with that) and Animal Crossing mobile. Wonder, how to convince those mobile gamers to try Nintendo stuffs for better gaming experience ?

@Anti-Matter

Now that is the million dollar question that Nintendo needs to figure out.

Just Sony doing what Sony does best, copy

Off the top of my head, I can't think of any Sony IP's that would make good mobile games.

They already have their hands in mobile and I don't think they have done very well. Or if they have, I haven't seen them say so.

They do have a couple games I would like to see come back even if it's as a mobile game, like LocoRoco, but that game doesn't have the sheer brand power Pokemon does. I'd play it though since LocoRoco was on the PSP and I really dislike the PSP, especially after the Vita released and felt so much better. Such a great handheld, would have been a great rival for the 3DS. A shame Sony killed it with overpriced proprietary memory cards. It's still $60 for a 32GB card and unlike on the 3DS where that will probably be all you need ever, that doesn't go very far on the Vita.

And Sony copies Nintendo once again....par for the course. History repeats itself.

Hasn't Sony messed with mobile in the past? I remember an Uncharted themed card game or something. It doesn't matter - mobile gaming success isn't simply make a game and the money will roll in...unless it's Pokemon. I think the rules for mobile gaming success are much different than tradional console gaming.

Sony should make Patapon, LocoRoco, Little big planet and Echochrome for smartphone.

@Blastcorp64
I think Pokemon's Fate has been determined by Destiny and a little bit of Luck. Might have a good fortune.
If you believe in Feng Sui, some combination aspects can determine which become trendy, which will abandonded.

While Pokémon Go is indeed a great success, the assumed amount of money it has made Nintendo is not up to par with what Mario Kart Wii or New Super Mario Bros. Wii earned them.

Sony smells the money, and so does Nintendo, but it's unlikely any of the big boys are abandoning premium priced software any time soon.

@DESS-M-8 @Kirk @rjejr
Yeah, I got that wrong. I do remember the articles on Sony bringing bigger IP to mobile with a dedicated division before the Pokemon GO explosion in popularity. This is just an opportunity to legitimize it a bit and a feeling that it might be more successful than expected.

As for claims of Sony copying Nintendo here, that's pretty silly as Sony was trying to make headway in the actual mobile space long before Nintendo right alongside their dedicated gaming hardware as well. I mean Sony failed at it and all, but Sony was quicker to act and saw how mobile was invading the gaming space.

Just a side note to all this. I'm a dedicated gamer on PCs and Nintendo with Sony on the side (never jumped into XBox) but even though I've bought almost every Nintendo portable iteration I've always found the tiny size and limited hardware frustrating. In other words, I never got into Pokémon. The closest I got was loving Pokémon Snap (of all things!) and getting into the collectible card game very casually with my young kids.

So, now along comes Pokémon Go and we are all into it, even my wife who is actually the highest level, and the original cartoon series is playing daily in our home. And I think I'm going to start playing the original GameBoy game once we all settle into the new school year.

My youngest son is a bit bored of it because he's not ahead and he plays all sorts of games but it's basically Pokémon Go and AM2R for me at the moment.

My point is, this mobile game experiment is leading us directly toward the dedicated Pokémon games and we weren't even big Pokémon fans to begin with. It's doing exactly what Nintendo is hoping can happen with its other mobile games and Sony has good reason to be excited about potential there.

@aaronsullivan except that they are.

They have previously ventured into this and failed.

Now Nintendo have developed a workable model that is ridiculously profitable, Sony will imitate after Nintendo innovate.

Same with countless precious applications. Programs and devices. Most notably motion control.

Sony gave you a motion controller in your dualshock 3!! Rubbish and pretty much redundant from the off.

Nintendo developed actual motion control, sony then did what........?

A tangent I know, but highlighting that Sony sometimes have a go, fail, leave it alone. Nintendo then do something properly and then Sony change direction/revisit/rework a previously failed idea to match Nintendo's direction, just like mobile gaming.

@aaronsullivan Exactly.

@aaronsullivan Yeah, ultimately, Nintendo's plan of using mobile to simply sell more of its own dedicated hardware and games seems to be working pretty much perfectly. So kudos to Nintendo for that at least.

@DESS-M-8 Well, Game Freak copied Google's spoof and hired Niantic to transform their already very similar game Ingress into a Pokemon game. So... Sony copied... Nintendo? Nintendo's first foray into mobile was Miitomo. So, when Sony made a division for mobile games using their big IP, it might have made the connection that it thought Pokémon Go would be successful but it hadn't seen it happen.

This who copied who thing gets tiresome after awhile. When something great is designed and others have their go at it, I'm really happy as a consumer. That's each competitor making the other better. There are times when it's shameless and mindless. When one company apes another quickly just so it doesn't feel left behind. That doesn't help as much. That's not what's happening here though. Not unless I see Sony release a Miitomo clone, a Mario run clone, and a Pokemon GO clone. Then, we can talk about this again.

@aaronsullivan completely irrelevant to this business venture, Google are not even in the same market or situation as Nintendo.

This about an hardware manufacturer, exclusively developing software for their own platform branching out and developing for alternate platforms (previously considered a compeititor) to develop a new and positive revenue stream. This encompasses Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony. That is it.

Nintendo are forging a way of using the mobile game market to grow interest in their dedicated gaming platforms and they are making it work. Off the back of that, Sony are now following in that direction, how could they not? It's a genius business move.

The point is, this is typically how Sony operate and is exactly what is happening now. It's not particularly a good or bad thing. Sometimes it has led to success for them, sometimes it has led to failure. Sony rarely innovate, but rather imitate and sometimes provide that imitation with a genuine improvement. The point of the original article is that this is what Sony are now doing with the mobile gaming angle.

I wasnt discussing who copied who, I was pointing out that they have copied them, an observation not an opinion. They have change their focus entirely following the success of a competitor. The fact that compeititor is Nintendo, yet again, is just unfortunate circumstance.

Every company goes mobile. Its HUGE!!