Just shortly after replacing Andrew House as the PlayStation CEO, John Kodera has opened up about the PlayStation brand and their outlook on mobile gaming. His statement is resoundingly different from Andrew House’s.
Since Andrew House had stepped down from his spot as the CEO of PlayStation, many wondered what would happen with the brand once his replacement, John Kodera, would take the chair and begin his tenure as the PlayStation boss. In a remarkable move since his predecessor’s departure, John Kodera has opened up stating that he “sees a future in portable gaming,” during an interview with Bloomberg.
John Kodera now sits as the head of PlayStation Brand of Sony, which sits at a total value of 1.85 trillion yen ($16.6 billion USD). According to Kodera, portable gaming should be seen as an important part of the PlayStation brands current ecosystem and that they are looking for ways to innovate and allow the brand to grow. According to the information gathered from Bloomberg, Kodera has hinted at the possibility of the next PlayStation console being closely integrated with portable devices.
This bit of news should come as no surprise due to Sony’s move at allowing their fans to enjoy their PlayStation community and hardware no matter where they are in the world. However, Kodera has not outright stated what their plans are for the PlayStation 4’s successor console stating that it’s “not yet in the right stage to discuss specific hardware plans.”
Kodera did state during a roundtable interview on Wednesday in Tokyo, Japan, that portable gaming shouldn’t be separated from “consoles, it’s necessary to continue thinking of it (portable gaming) as one method to deliver more gaming experiences and exploring what our customers want from portable. We want to think about many options.”
His subtle hints could have several different meanings. One, we could see a Sony PlayStation Vita successor, which hasn’t been revised or replaced since its 2011 launch, and we haven’t heard any news about an upgraded version of the mobile hardware, which allows for fans to play their games on the go and remote play their PlayStation 4’s no matter where they are in the world.
Secondly, Kodera could be hinting at an entirely new piece of hardware, a true successor that doesn’t just upgrade on what the Vita did, but also comes with new mobile hardware, something more along the lines of Nintendo’s smash-hit and record-breaking console-vie-handheld Nintendo Switch, which has already outsold the Vita since it’s 2017 debut.
This outlook Mr. Kodera has is a drastic change from former PlayStation CEO Andrew House, who stated last September that Sony would be pursuing different avenues for their approach and strategy to gaming since they didn’t see a market opportunity for portable gaming platforms. Kodera’s stance on portable gaming does mean that Sony could very well be looking at a more Nintendo Switch-like approach to their future hardware, allowing them to integrate mobile and console even more than ever before.
However, Kodera’s stance should come as no surprise. Since his tenure started, Kodera and Sony have been experimenting with projects such as the PlayLink program, which allows gamers to use their smartphones to interact with specially designed PlayStation 4 titles. Even with these select few games, both Sony and Nintendo have drastically slowed down their jump to mobile gaming, which has all but taken over the market and is worth billions of American dollars a year.
During his interview, Kodera didn’t open up to Bloomberg about the five-year-old PlayStation 4’s successor hardware, stating that “We’ll be leveraging the knowledge and experience of having built four generations of consoles. His comments come shortly after the PlayStation brands operating profits have begun to drop from its previous year, which could be setting sony up for a PlayStation 4 successor announcement in 2019 and a possible launch in 2020 or 2021, which would see the PlayStation 4 at 6 and 7 years old, respectively.
For now, we do have high hopes for mobile gaming thanks to Kodera’s statements and have an idea of what his views are for the PlayStation brand in the future. If everything proves to be as good as they sound, PlayStation will continue on its way, hammering out some of the best gaming experiences the industry will ever see and will remain the place to be for avid Sony fans.
About the Writer:
Dustin is our native console game reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the borders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPGs, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter or Facebook.