Sony plans to set up a game design studio in India

Seeing the huge growth potential of the Indian market, Sony's online entertainment division Sony online Entertainment LLC has announced plans to build a game studio in the country to develop native games.

According to David Christensen, vice president of Sony's international operations and business development department, the studio will be set up next year in Bangalore.

" We need Indian content for gamers and we are looking for partnerships with native partners ," said Christensen on the sidelines of the game conference in Mumbai.

" We will contribute technology to this joint venture project, " Christensen affirmed. Sony will provide game design and computer chip talents for the new game studio.

Recently, Sony has partnered with Virgin Comics, a Bangalore-based company, with film maker Shekhar Kapur and Sir Richard Branson. With the help of Sony, Virgin Comics is developing a multi-player online game based on the comic book "Ramayan 3329", which tells the story of the battle between the legendary Indian hero and the devil.

The new Indian online game market is currently 2.8 million players. Developers hope this market will continue to expand with the participation of foreign factors. Meanwhile, analyst Pearl Research predicts India's online game market will reach $ 200 million by 2010, and the number of players will increase to 4 million.

Van Han