The future of PlayStation may be portable, says Sony exec

Off the heels of the news that the next PlayStation might be as little as three years away, Sony's new PlayStation chief John Kodera has hinted at the possibility of Sony re-entering the portable games market, according to a report in Bloomberg news.

What that portable game console might look like is still shrouded in secrecy, but it appears that Sony's upper management has shifted its stance from Andrew House's analysis of the portable games market last September. At the time, House said Sony would not be chasing the success of the Nintendo Switch, because he didn't see an "opportunity" for portable video game platforms. 

Whether it's the profits of the Switch or the rollout of PlayStation's PlayLink technology, Kodera's interest seems to indicate that console PlayStation games may have some mobile format or interactivity in the future.

At a roundtable interview attended by Bloomberg on Wednesday, Kodera stated that in his opinion, "rather than separating portable gaming from consoles, it’s necessary to continue thinking of [portable gaming] as one method to deliver more gaming experiences and exploring what our customers want from portable. We want to think about many options.”

Despite the struggling success of PlayStation's previous mobile efforts, its indie support team has won fans among developers for shepherding independent games onto the PlayStation Vita. Those games buoyed a platform that, while not seeing blockbuster success, created an expectation for indie developers that their console and PC-focused games might be enjoyable on the go.