Sony Takes on iPhone's Growing Mobile Gaming Popularity in New Ad


Ars Technica highlights a new television commercial for the Sony PSP in which a character mocks the mobile gaming experience on a smartphone that looks suspiciously like an iPhone. In addition to claiming a superior experience on the PSP, Sony also touts $9.99 pricing for some of its older games, closer to the App Store typical high-end gaming price point than that of traditional PSP games.

It's interesting: the PSP is basically setting itself up as an alternative to iPhone games, which is the opposite of how that argument usually plays out. Sony is also promoting inexpensive, older games as a reason to enjoy the PSP instead of looking ahead to big-name upcoming titles.

As the report notes, sagging PSP sales appear to have led Sony to take on the Apple's App Store as a source for gaming on the go. But the strategy carries some significant risk of bringing the iPhone even further into the mainstream gaming world.

The traditional gaming hardware companies have increasingly been looking to Apple as a viable competitor, with Sony planning a new lineup of mobile gaming devices and Nintendo similarly viewing Apple as the "enemy of the future".

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