More than a year after its public debut, Sony Interactive Entertainment's mobile game division Forwardworks seems poised to put out its first game in Japan: a free-to-play spin on Everybody's Golf (known in the West as Hot Shots Golf) for iOS and Android devices.
This is Sony's first notable attempt at bringing an established, somewhat well-known PlayStation property to mobile.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the company intends to release another 4-5 mobile games by 2018 (the company has previously listed PlayStation franchises like Arc the Lad and Wild Arms as prospective fodder for mobile adaptation), though there are yet no announced plans to launch any of its games outside of Japan.
As veteran Japanese game industry analyst (and occasional Gamasutra blogger) Dr. Serkan Toto noted last year, what Sony is trying to accomplish through Forwardworks is much akin to Nintendo's initiative to expand its audience by launching mobile games starring well-known Nintendo characters.
So far that initiative seems to have gone pretty well for Nintendo; the company's most recent mobile release, Fire Emblem Heroes, reportedly generated over $5 million in revenues after its first week on the market.
