Portable gaming shouldn't be separate from consoles - PlayStation head

The Vita may be dead, but Sony thinks the portable gaming market has life left in it yet. According to a Bloomberg report, Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO John Kodera said in a roundtable interview in Tokyo today that the company is considering a number of paths forward in the field.

"In my opinion, rather than separating portable gaming from consoles, it's necessary to continue thinking of it (portable gaming) as one method to deliver more gaming experiences and exploring what our customers want from portable," Kodera said. "We want to think about many options."

That suggests an about-face from the position of Kodera's predecessor, Andrew House. Last September, House dismissed suggestions that the success of the Nintendo Switch had changed the company's thinking on the portable market , saying, "We have not seen [handheld gaming outside of Japan] as being a huge market opportunity."

Sony's portable strategy of late has largely revolved around smartphones. Last year, the company introduced PlayLink, a line of PS4 games that let players interact with them using their phones, and its ForwardWorks division has been creating mobile games since its inception two years ago.

While Kodera's comments could be interpreted as interest in having the next PlayStation console reproduce the hybrid handheld functionality of the Switch, Kodera said that it was "not yet the right stage to discuss specific hardware plans."