Now this is interesting. Andriasang reports that Sony’s PlayStation suite will move to other platforms. SCE CEO Kaz Hirai said:

We have a completely open stance. There are a variety of OSes, but we’re focusing first on Android. There’s also Windows, iOS and so forth, but we don’t have the resources to make it compatible with everything from the start.

This is a fair enough statement, although I question the business decision in aiming first for Android, when it’s clear Sony would make a killing on iOS (despite having to give up 30 per cent of payments to Apple).

Detractors will probably argue that Sony’s ‘open’ stance is an admission that its handheld ambitions (now placing the company resolutely in third place, behind Nintendo and Apple) are failing, but I think this could prove to be a shrewd and brilliant move. At worst, Sony makes a load of cash from reselling old IP, to customers who don’t have a Sony device and don’t feel compelled to buy one. At best, lapsed Sony customers may fall in love with PlayStation games all over again and seek out the current iteration of the company’s consoles. And at the worst end of ‘at worst’, it also sets up Sony to dramatically shift towards a Sega-style software-only position should it need to in the future.

Assuming by ‘open’, Sony does eventually mean ‘Android, iOS, Windows and maybe even Mac’ and not just ‘Android’, there’s nothing here but a huge win for the company.

Hat tip: iPhone Games Bulletin.