Sony announced the formation of ForwardWorks Corporation, a new spinoff company that'll focus on smartphone games and apps.
ForwardWorks will begin its operation from April 1st, 2016 and it will focus on Japanese and Asian users. The company didn't share any info about its upcoming games, but it confirmed that it will "leverage the intellectual property of the numerous PlayStation dedicated software titles and its gaming characters" to give smartphone users the ability to casually enjoy its full-fledged game titles.
This isn't Sony's first foray into mobile gaming. PlayStation Mobile program was launched in 2012 with the explicit intention of bringing "PlayStation quality" to a market predominated by "junk." Sony and several handset makers including HTC and ASUS supported the platform but it never gained traction with developers and gamers. The program was terminated towards the end of 2015. Perhaps this is why Sony decided to focus on the Asian market only this time around.
ForwardWorks is a subsidiary of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. which will change its company name to Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. (SIE) effective Friday, April 1st, 2016.
