As players are waiting for some good news around PlayStation 5’s Gran Turismo 7, a development over the weekend could mean that Gran Turismo will also head to the world of mobile gaming.
It comes by way of a job posting made on LinkedIn. The advert is for a “head of mobile” within Sony Interactive Entertainment, in a role that the job description says will be a “new business unit” under the PlayStation Studios umbrella.
Naturally the listing is packed with management spiel, but one section is pretty eye-catching. The successful candidate will, according to the ad:
“lead all aspects of the expansion of our game development from consoles and PCs to mobile & Live Services with a focus on successfully adapting PlayStation’s most popular franchises for mobile.”
Although it stops some way short of specifics, it is pretty clear in intent: Sony is looking to bring its biggest, first-party titles from the PlayStation to mobile devices. That would naturally include games and series like Crash Bandicoot, God of War, Uncharted, and The Last of Us, but when it comes to “most popular franchises”, Gran Turismo has them all beat — and by some margin, with over 80 million copies sold.
This isn’t the first time that Sony has looked to bring its PlayStation Studios titles to platforms other than the PlayStation itself. Last year’s full-year financial report revealed that SIE was looking to develop some of its first-party games for the PC market, and of course Horizon Zero Dawn — a 2017 PS4 adventure game — became available through the Steam store on PC last August. More recently, MLB The Show 21 launched on PS5 and Xbox Game Pass — seemingly at the behest of Major League Baseball — despite being a PlayStation Studios game series.
Exactly how a Gran Turismo game might work on a mobile device is very much a matter of speculation. Mobile racing games in general are very heavily tilted towards the casual end of the market and somewhat simplified. That said, while some titles are one-touch, others do give you wider options, including tilt control for steering. It’s likely that if such a game does materialize, it will be a separate title but use the content from the main series.
Either way, it’s a fascinating prospect and something we’ll keep a close eye on over the coming months.
See more articles on Mobile Gaming and Sony.
