At an event today in Japan, Sony unveiled what ForwardWorks, their mobile game company, is currently working on.
First up, a new Hot Shots Golf (aka Everybody’s Golf) and action puzzle game No Heroes Allowed! Dash! will release in 2017 for iOS and Android devices. They’ve also begun work on new Arc the Lad and Wild Arms titles as part of their Reboot Project, which aims to revive PlayStation masterpieces on smartphones.
Arc the Lad continues the story of the series and is being developed by AltPlus, with producer Toshiro Tsuchida, scenario writer Norihiko Yonesaka, art planning and supervision’s Eiji Koyama, Ryuichi Kunisue, and Hiroshi Hayashi all returning, and T-Square’s Masahiro Andoh handling the music. As for Wild Arms, it will be a new project with a new story, series supervisor Akifumi Kaneko will supervise it, Nagiko Michiko will be in charge of music, and it’s being developed by Wright Flyer Studios.
Other announcements from ForwardWorks include PaRappa the Rapper, Doko Demo Issho, and Boku no Natsuyasumi games, but no further details were given. Additionally, a new project from Sakura Wars creator Oji Hiroi is in development, titled Sora to Umi no Aida, and it’s based on six girls who challenge the space fishery.
They’re also partnering with NIS on Disgaea and Yomawari titles, and they have a partnership with Square Enix, but details on the Square Enix project are TBA.
Finally, ForwardsWorks revealed that they’re working with Sony on something called Project Field, and the first piece of content for Project Field is from the Yo-kai Watch series.
Here’s what Sony said on the PlayStation Blog about Project Field (as translated by Google), which allows real-world trading card games to interact with apps through bluetooth:
“Project FIELD” is a platform that consists of smart phones and tablets, dedicated pads developed by Sony, cards with integrated IC chips, game applications, and a combination of trading card games and smartphone applications. Various functions such as position detection sensor, IC reading device, LED, Bluetooth etc. are packed in the special pad, and when putting a card on the pad, it detects the direction and movement quickly and exchanges data with the smartphone game application through Bluetooth can do.
Not only the position and orientation where the card is placed, but also movements such as vertical slide, slide to sideways, change direction, for example, can also be detected, and games such as “attack”, “avoidance” and ” It is reflected in play. Since data of the IC chip can be read not only but also can be written, it is possible to link the card and the game application bidirectionally. For example, it is possible to grow a character card with the experience value acquired in the game. In addition, it corresponds to a way of playing by fighting with friends by connecting two pads to a smartphone or tablet. Because the rules and calculations of card games are done automatically by the application, even children can easily play with them.
You can view trailers for Hot Shots Golf, No Heroes Allowed, Arc the Lad/Wild Arms, and Sora to Umi no Aida below:
Sony didn’t say if/when any of these games would be coming West.
[Source: PlayStation Japan, ForwardWorks via Gematsu, Games Industry]
