Sony is reportedly considering developing a cell phone-gaming device hybrid in order to be better placed to compete with Apple’s iPod and iPhone.
According to Reuters, which cited Sunday’s edition of the Nikkei business daily, the company plans to set up a project team as early as this month which will start working towards combining the best of Sony’s gaming expertise and Ericsson’s mobile knowledge.
This is in response to a growing number of game developers such as Capcom and Square Enix offering games for mobile devices from Apple. Currently iPhone owners can download full versions of Doom or Wolfenstein to play on their devices. Developments such as this may pose a considerable threat to Sony’s PSP and Nintendo’s DS market share.
John Carmack, one of the founding developers of id Software which is responsible for titles such as Doom, Wolfenstien 3D and Quake, has been particularly involved with porting classic games over to devices such as the iPhone.
Reuters hinted that this would be an initiative that would involve both Sony and Ericsson. In 2001 the two companies formed Sony Ericsson with a view to capturing a larger part of the mobile market. Since then the respective companies have ceased manufacturing phones individually.
This rumour comes only months after Sony announced details for the PSP Go, follow up to the company’s successful PSP 3000, which is due to be released in October of this year. Although it has been confirmed that the Go will feature both WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity it will not include mobile phone functionality.
Sony has declined to comment.
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