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How One Company Can “Crash” the AR Market

How One Company Can “Crash” the AR Market

Sony has been nudging its way into the mobile market for a while now, but has never made any full commitments where games are concerned. In April, however, Sony created a subsidiary called ForwardWorks. The new company will be developing games for the mobile platform exclusively. As of yet, there have been no games announced but they are planning to release them in Japan and Asia only. ForwardWorks will be expanding to the rest of the world, of course, though it hasn’t been officially announced yet. According to Sony, ForwardWorks will aim to deliver users with the opportunity to casually enjoy full-fledged game titles in the ever-expanding smart device market.

Since the announcement of ForwardWorks’ existence, we haven’t heard much about the company… until recently. The CEO of Sony, Kaz Hirai, informed Financial Times that the company has very aggressive plans to enter the mobile gaming market. This is quite a shift for the console-based company, but it looks as though these plans were in the works long before the success of Pokemon Go . Nonetheless, Hirai cites Pokémon Go as “a real game-changer” and is interested in how it “changed the way people move.” Sony is clearly wanting to take inspiration from said game, taking notes on Pokemon Go ‘s augmented reality feature and calling it a “great innovative idea that’s going to lift all boats for the video game industry”.

Sony’s plans to compete against the likes of Pokemon Go are ambitious, and I’m very much wondering how it plans on accomplishing this. My theory is that Sony is going to take one its famed franchises like Crash Bandicoot and build a mobile game around it. As someone who is pretty hardcore on the free-to-play mobile front, I can say with certainty it’s only a matter of time before mobile games gain the recognition they deserve. As such, it’s entirely possible for Sony to make a big hit in the mobile market. It won’t be as big as Pokemon (I don’t think anything could be, even Nintendo’s new Super Mario Run ) but it might get close.

How One Company Can “Crash” the AR Market

How is Sony going to do this? Well, it has already given AR a go on its PS Vita. Apparently, you buy six AR Play Cards, download some free games from the Playstation Store, and bam, you can play table soccer on your living room floor. Even if it was clearly highly experimental, it has a lot of potential in the the context of the mobile phone market. Just imagine being able to play Crash Bandicoot on your phone anywhere, on anything. Suddenly, your breakfast table is an amazing obstacle course and your morning coffee holds the last three boxes to smash. I’m not even a fan of Crash Bandicoot (yet), and I’d definitely get addicted to that game.

There are definitely still a lot of problems with trying to emulate the success of Pokémon Go , but I still think Sony’s ForwardWorks will at least come close. Mobile games are on the rise regardless, so even if Sony somehow botches this AR attempt, the company will have the opportunity to try again and do better. In addition, converting a platformer like Crash Bandicoot to AR can only spell fun, especially with Sony’s previous experience with the AR Play Cards.

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