Sony is setting up ForwardWorks, a company designed to create apps for PlayStation games in Asia.

Starting from 1 April, ForwardWorks will “leverage the intellectual property” of PlayStation games and characters as well as its “knowledge and know-how of gaming development expertise” to create apps “optimised for smart devices including smartphones”, the company said.

It “will aim to deliver users with opportunity to casually enjoy full-fledged game titles in the new field of the smart device market”, the statement added.

“The mobile market has grown in size to rival that for traditional game machines,” Masaki Tsukakoshi, a spokesman at Sony’s games unit told Bloomberg.

“We are looking to create an opportunity for more users to easily try fully-fledged game titles that emphasise playability,” he added.

Rival Nintendo launched a social app called Miitomo in Japan last week, which garnered 1 million downloads in a few days. It plans to launch four more titles in the coming year.