Sony: Smartphone gaming may actually help boost the PS4, not kill it

Sony: mobile gaming may actually help boost the PS4, not kill it
There's plenty of life in the gamepad yet

The threat of mobile to traditional console gaming has felt more present than ever with the arrival of the PS4 and Xbox One.

But Sony seems unfazed. In fact, it thinks that mobile gaming could actually prove a big benefit to the next-gen consoles, working as a gateway for people who wouldn't otherwise pick up a controller.

"We see the tablet and smartphone market looking refreshingly like it's more complementary and additive than cannibalising," Fergal Gara, PlayStation UK MD, told TechRadar.

"Certainly the early demand for PS4 shows us that it hasn't taken away the console market at all. Possibly the opposite. It possibly encourages people in, they get a taste for games and say 'well I wonder what's out there beyond what I'm doing today'."

Steam rising

That's all well and good but Sony might have bigger fish to fry. Valve's Steam Machines will soon offer a new type of living room experience - one that's not locked down for years at a time in the way that consoles have traditionally been.

So, is Sony scared of the big bad Steam? "We've got to keep our eyes on all forms of competition and of course it isn't just Steam Machines we need to think about," said Gara, who emphasised that the PS4 is a very different proposition this time round - one that's broader and built for the long haul.

"We definitely see the PlayStation ecosystem as being quite different in the future to in the past," he said.

"You wind the clock back to the PS one and it's a box under your television and that's it. The PS3 era was defined by much more multiplayer. The PS4 era and beyond, we see the likes of the Gaikai acquisition bringing in cloud gaming, we see the likes of companion apps, we see remote play, we see dual screening, we see all of that happening.

"So I think you can expect to see a world where there are more PlayStation experiences available on many different devices."

  • Read our up-to-date verdict of the PS4
Hugh Langley

Hugh Langley is the ex-News Editor of TechRadar. He had written for many magazines and websites including Business Insider, The Telegraph, IGN, Gizmodo, Entrepreneur Magazine, WIRED (UK), TrustedReviews, Business Insider Australia, Business Insider India, Business Insider Singapore, Wareable, The Ambient and more.

Hugh is now a correspondent at Business Insider covering Google and Alphabet, and has the unfortunate distinction of accidentally linking the TechRadar homepage to a rival publication.