Sony has made its PlayStation Mobile platform open to developers worldwide after the Japanese entertainment giant announced the public availability of the SDK in nine key markets today.
Available in beta since April this year, the program is immediately open in Japan, the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Australia. Sony isn’t stopping there though, and an additional phased rollout bring it to Hong Kong, Taiwan and further countries in due course.
In case you missed it, the PlayStation Mobile platform is Sony’s response to the grow of entertainment options and gaming on mobile. Content is held in the PlayStation Mobile store which is available to both its own personal media and gaming devices, as well as selected (PlayStation Mobile-certified) smartphones and tablets.
The move out of beta sees Sony make a push for content by opening its borders to developers of all shapes and sizes. The expansion allows devs to build apps and games for the Vita, PSP, PS3 and other certified devices. That also includes a range of Sony-built smartphones within its Xperia range, and three phones from HTC’s One series.
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The annual license fee for international developers is yet to be disclosed, though a rough idea of the cost comes from Japan, where it costs 7,980 yen, just under US$100.
Sony says that the newly-opened service has taken on feedback from early-stage beta users, and now has “enhanced system stability”, while content created during the beta period is available and usable without a problem going forward, it explains.
The PlayStation Mobile store went live on the aforementioned selection of devices last month. The company also announced the addition of Fujitsu and Sharp to its list of certified vendors, with support for Fujitsu’s ARROWS line of smartphones and tablets, as well as Sharp’s new smartphone range.
Sony’s Vita mobile gaming system, which launched last summer, is very much one of the focuses for the store but the company has also embraced smartphones — via Android — which is something that fellow Japanese games giant Nintendo is still yet to do.
Related: Sony PlayStation Vita review: Hands-down the best gaming handheld available today
Image via Kiyoshi Ota/AFP/Getty Images
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