Sony wants iPhone devs to thrive on PS Suite

Sony wants to create an App Store ecosystem with its new mobile and handheld platform, PlayStation Suite.

The firm’s worldwide studios boss, Shuhei Yoshida, said “the true heroes on PS Suite will be small, independent developers, who are much more nimble and have some creative ideas that have never been seen before”.

“I’m very excited to see what kinds of game these small developers will provide via PS Suite later this year,” he added.

PlayStation Suite is a development platform that allows studios to port their content across to Android devices, as well as the upcoming successor to the PSP.

The bold move will break a fifteen-year tradition at Sony, with PlayStation games no longer exclusive to the platform.

In an interview on the PlayStation blog, Yoshida said Sony itself will be piping game content through PS Suite.

“We are looking to provide short-form games on the platform,” he said, “which will run on both PlayStation Certified Android devices and PSP2”.

He also spoke of the new handheld’s diversity (PSP2 will come with, among other things, two multi-touch surfaces) and how it can encourage innovation.

“Various unique user interfaces and digital distribution will help developers experiment with many different types of games,” he said, “whether they be intuitive, casual games using dual touch; augmented reality games; location based fun activities or network only, free to play, online games.”