Sony arm to set up game studio in India

Mumbai: Sony Online Entertainment, a unit of Japan''s Sony Corporation, is planning to set up a game development studio in India, David Christensen, vice president, business development & international operations of the company, said.
"Our goal is to have an office in India," he said on the sidelines of a gaming conference. The studio is most likely to come up in Bangalore, he added

This studio, he said, would develop games for the online PC gaming market in India, adding that the company is in talks with potential joint venture partners for setting up the game studio.

"We have identified a couple of game developers in India and we are in talks with them," Christensen said.

Sony would provide technical expertise while the local partner would provide the physical infrastructure and local market expertise. The studio is expected to come up in the first quarter of 2008, he said.
 
In August this year, Sony Online had announced a tie-up with Virgin Comics to launch a multi-player online game based on the Ramayana.

Sony Online is a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the principal businesses of Sony Corp of America, the US subsidiary of Japan''s Sony Corporation.

Online gaming is catching on in India. Currently, there are about 2.8 million online gamers in the country, and developers expect the market to explode as broadband penetration grows over the next few years.

With more than 50 per cent of India''s population under the age of 25, analyst firm Pearl Research estimates the online games market to reach $200 million by 2010 from $4 million now.