Business

Sony forms new mobile gaming firm ForwardWorks

The company will bring together PlayStation titles and mobile devices for users across Asia.

Written by Charlie Osborne, Contributing Writer March 24, 2016 at 2:37 a.m. PT

Sony has announced the launch of a new company dedicated to bringing PlayStation titles to the mobile devices of users in Japan and Asia.

The PlayStation Vita, Sony's handheld PS console released in 2011, hasn't survived the increasing popularity of mobile devices and games tailored for smartphones and tablets. While you can still acquire them, the Vita has turned out to be somewhat of a flop.

Despite this not-so-successful foray into the world of mobile gaming, on the heels of news that Sony plans to merge its PlayStation divisions into a single unit, the tech giant has now formed a standalone business dedicated to giving mobile gaming another go.

Featured

Announced on Thursday, Sony said the new firm, ForwardWorks, will work to bring PlayStation titles to Android and iOS devices.

In a press release, Sony said the new entity will begin operations on April 1 this year. and will be headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, the location of Sony headquarters.

While no details have been released on the specifics of Sony's plans, the combination of PlayStation content, "gaming applications optimised for smart devices" and the Android and iOS platforms suggests that Sony may be hoping to bring PlayStation titles to mobile devices with dedicated apps.

If you're hoping to acquire these potential apps, however, you will have to be a user from Japan or Asia as a whole -- at least for now.

ForwardWorks will be led by Atsushi Morita, the president of the new company, and both Andrew House and Hiroshi Ueda will serve as members of the board.

The new company will start out with a capital investment of 10 million yen.