Thoughts on Sony’s Mobile Gaming Strategy

Following a previous look at Sony’s gaming strategy, I wanted to think a little more about their approach to mobile gaming. I had said before that the PSPgo was a good games machine and sad it has been discontinued. However back in the PSP days, before smart phones, Sony only really had one mobile games platform. Now it has 2 – the PSP, the Xperia and is planning to launch the PSP2 also. This gives it 2/3 games platforms at least, and assuming it iterates the Xperia to new versions – possibly even more. To me this creates a degree of confusion – what is the games platform they suggest? Is the Xperia a games console or a phone – or a phone for gamers? (‘cos smart phones are really both) Possible answers to this question has echoes of the N-Gage and its move from being sold as a games console to being a phone for gamers. I say this because if the Xperia is the mobile games machine you need – then why buy a PSP(2)? These are the questions being asked…

So what’s it gonna be, folks? It’s a little bit difficult to judge at the moment since most of these specs (especially on the XPERIA Play,) are still technically unannounced. We’d like to say you’d be better off with the phone if you’d like more across-the-board functionality, going with the NGP if you want games specifically, but it’s not that simple. If you could find a way to connect the NGP to a 3G or 4G network, it appears as though it’d be a superior machine as far as social interaction goes (isn’t that strange?) But when it comes to apps further reaching than what PlayStation and its affiliates are going to offer, it appears that the XPERIA Play might be better suited to your needs, especially since it’s got a MUCH better chance of being jailbroken within the first 10 minutes of its release, leaving you open to thousands of not only games, but apps that can do much more than skateboarding on a screen.