Sony: ‘Anywhere the Gamer is, We Want to Be.’

Speaking to AllThingsD, SCEA president Jack Tretton has said that Sony wants to be on every platform a gamer might want to play on.

"If gaming exists somewhere, we want PlayStation to be there. So we'll bring our games to smartphones and tablets, we'll certainly make it available on competitive devices, we have our own smartphones and tablets. Anywhere the gamer is, we want to be."

He said playing on smartphones amounted to "good-enough gaming" but said it's difficult to scale down full console titles for portable gaming. 

"We can't take Gran Turismo 6 and put it on a smartphone or a tablet. It's just gonna be a lousy experience. It's not going to be what it is. Conversely, you can go out today and play Angry Birds on your PlayStation 3 and have a great time. I'm not sure why you'd want to do that, but you could."

Tretton went on to compare the difference between the platforms to cheap and fine wines. 

"It's like wine. Your first wine tastes good, and you start drinking more of it. You go from white to red, and you go from $10 bottles to $50 bottles. Some people just stop at $10, but some people become wine aficionados and, all of a sudden, if it's not Screaming Eagle, it's not good enough.

"People don't drink Screaming Eagle because it's $800 and they want to throw away $790. They perceive that that's a much better wine than the $10 bottle. Smartphone gaming might be good enough for somebody. For other people, they find themselves wanting more, and they're looking for better controls, more technology and a more immersive experience."

The extent to which consoles are now multimedia platforms has shown that gaming is not a niche hobby with a narrow audience, Tretton said.

Sony launched the PS4 in North America last night and while the launch hasn't been completely smooth Microsoft has congratulated their rival on the system's launch.