Sony is reportedly planning to take it up a notch when it comes to mobile gaming, with five or more smartphone games set for a 2018 release.
The gaming scene is currently dominated by Sony and Microsoft in terms of consoles, as the PlayStation and Xbox are the most popular choices. In mobile gaming, however, Sony has yet to secure a more notable foothold.
Sony is not entirely new to the scene, but it's not exactly one of the top players either in terms of smartphone games. That could all change in 2018, however, if a new report from Nikkei turns out to be accurate.
Nikkei reports that Sony Interactive Entertainment is gearing up to release at least five smartphone games in late March 2018, targeting Japan and some other regions in Asia.
According to the publication, Sony's upcoming smartphone games will be "based on popular PlayStation series." This means that Sony could launch brand new titles, but it will also reportedly revive older games that can't be played on the latest hardware.
Gamers are typically attracted to smartphone games that are based on popular console titles or iconic games. The massive success Nintendo saw with Pokemon GO stands proof of that.
A March 2018 release, however, is quite far away, which means that plenty of changes could occur in the meantime. Nevertheless, Nikkei says that Sony may start announcing its upcoming smartphone titles sometime this year, although the actual release will be further down the line.
It remains to be seen though whether these upcoming smartphone games will be able to fulfil Sony's ambitions for the mobile scene. The company has already tried on several occasions to make it in this area, but it wasn't very successful. Notable efforts include the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play and the PlayStation Mobile initiative, both of which flopped without making too many waves.
Lastly, it's worth noting that Nikkei's report doesn't come as a big surprise. Sony already announced back in March this year that its new ForwardWorks mobile gaming division will bring PlayStation Games to Android and iOS, creating "fully fledged game titles."
The company did not offer any information at that point as to when it will release its first titles from ForwardWorks, but did say that the new games will roll out in Asia and Japan first. Nikkei's latest report seems to echo Sony's earlier news, albeit we have no official confirmation from Sony regarding the purported 2018 smartphone games release.
