Kaz Hirai Hints At PlayStation Phone In Interview

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Kaz Hirai gave a candid interview with the New York Times regarding the future of mobile PlayStations. He didn’t confirm the so called ‘PlayStation Phone’, but he did talk about it a lot. Anyway, Hirai said that Sony and their marketing will need to differentiate a clear line between the PlayStation Phone and the PSP 2. Hirai said: “We don’t want gamers to be asking, what’s the difference between that and a PSP. We have to come up with a message that users will understand.”

Mobile games have certainly exploded in the ‘App generation’ as mobile game developers are making bundles of money with their cheap, small games. But, those little $0.99 games aren’t what Sony aims for, Hirai says, he tells the ‘Times: “The games being played on Android and Apple platforms are fundamentally different from the world of immersive games that Sony Computer Entertainment, and PlayStation, aims for.” But, Hirai admits that the new wave of casual gamers interested only in apps could be good for the industry. “We’re seeing people who never had an interest in games join the gaming population. That means that the gaming industry pie is getting bigger.”

Some have suggested exactly what the quality of games will be on the ‘PlayStation Phone’. Early rumors talk about a closed proprietary software service on the phone called the ‘Z System’ which will be how Sony will distribute and protect their PSP-quality games on the open-source Android operating system. A system like that will certainly use higher-quality games, but Hirai’s comments make it sound like the PlayStation Phone or ‘Xperia Play’ will just play mobile games.