KEN Kutaragi, the engineer known as the father of
the Sony PlayStation video game console, is to split his time between
Sony and a new joint venture with Japan's Namco Bandai, as Sony
attempts to reinforce fraying ties with third-party game developers.
The
new venture, Cellius, comes as US and Japanese sales of PlayStation3 -
launched in November - have slowed dramatically in the face of high
prices and a shortage of "must-have" games.
Mr Kutaragi will continue as chairman of Sony Computer
Entertainment while serving as a part-time executive director at the
new venture, 51 per cent owned by Namco and 49 per cent by Sony.
Mr Kutaragi's appearance on the Cellius board comes just seven weeks
after he was made chairman of SCE, a nominal promotion which removed
him from the day-to-day running of the business amid signs of strained
relations with Sony chief executive Sir Howard Stringer.
Cellius has the task of developing games that exploit the advanced capabilities of the PS3's powerful Cell processor.
The Cell chip, co-designed by Sony, Toshiba and IBM, boasts
supercomputing capacity, but game studios have yet to tap its full
potential, given the high cost of designing games for the PS3.
Some observers speculate that by giving Namco Bandai direct access
to Mr Kutaragi, Sony is hoping to ensure the loyalty of a developer
whose only two PS3 games are the top and second-best selling titles for
the console.
Credit Suisse games analyst Jay Defibaugh said Namco Bandai had
assigned Isao Nakamura, one of its foremost games developers, to run
the new joint venture, even though "developing games for the PS3
carries a lot of risk".
A Sony spokesman said the joint venture would not design software
just for the PS3, but also for regular PCs, hand-held devices and
mobile phones - all products offered by Sony.
Since November, three major Japanese games developers have acted to reduce their exposure to Sony's flagship console.
Square Enix said last month that Dragon Quest IX, the latest
instalment in a series that racked up $US41 million ($53 million) in
game sales for previous PlayStation consoles, would only be produced
for Nintendo's hand-held DS machine.
Koei and Sega Sammy have both said that games previously earmarked
as PS3 exclusives will now also be developed for its rival platforms,
Nintendo's Wii and Microsoft's Xbox 360.
Sony still hopes PS3 sales will get a lift from promised exclusive
sequels later this year in Square's Final Fantasy and Konami's Metal
Gear Solid series.
The loss of exclusivity for the PS3 for either game would be a
serious blow to the game console's short-term sales prospects, Nomura
analyst Yuta Sakurai said.
Leo Lewis
January 29, 2007
Source:
The Australian News