Sony just announced the purchase of Savage Game Studio as it looks like the company is making a play for mobile gaming in the future.
Recently, Sony has placed several pies in several ovens with the company looking to scale beyond its traditional console gaming paradigm and start delivering additional experiences in the realms of PCs and the cloud, and today’s announcement of acquiring Savage Game Studios should open up a mobile gaming avenue soon.
Our mobile gaming efforts will be similarly additive, providing more ways for more people to engage with our content, and striving to reach new audiences unfamiliar with PlayStation and our games. Savage Game Studios is joining a newly created PlayStation Studios Mobile Division, which will operate independently from our console development and focus on innovative, on-the-go experiences based on new and existing PlayStation IP.
It should be noted, sometimes what seems news is old again, and Sony previously held a dedicated mobile gaming experience but the effort was mostly tied to additional content purchases and PS Vita related gaming.
Sony’s initial mobile effort came to an end in 2015, as mobile gaming shifted from the dedicated hardware of the PS Vita to a more accessible smartphone which could house full gaming experiences.
However, today’s announcement feels like 2015 rehashed and more like what Nintendo is doing with Super Mario Run, Pokémon Go, Mario Kart Tour, Dr. Mario and others. Instead of parking people in a mobile version of content store or making “mobile” games solely for the PS Vita, Sony and Savage Games will be leveraging the IP to make games better suited for mobile phones.
While the announcement is only hours old, an immediate conflict of interest arises as Sony redoubles its efforts in cloud gaming while also introducing presumably scaled down versions of their IP for mobile.
Which one will users prefer? A full version of Uncharted streamed to their device, or a touch-first designed platformer version well optimized for smartphone screens? It seems PlayStation is betting on the latter.
It is also unclear what will happen to Savage Game Studios previously announced first-person shooter game or its Mobile Live initiative now that its work will fall under Sony’s newly created mobile division.
