Not supercilious about Sony and Namco’s Cellius

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Friday, 26 January 2007

A new company called Cellius has been formed to create games exclusively for the PS3 and its powerful ‘Cell Broadband Engine’ processor with ‘father of the Playstation’ Ken Kutaragi as Chairman – but it will be a while before new games arrive.

Reports online say that the new company, Cellius, is 49% owned by Sony, and 51% by Namco Bandai and is not due to begin trading until March 6, only a few weeks before the PS3 launches in ‘the rest of the world’, with a less than USD $1 million investment of around ¥100 million or $823,000.

Given that modern games cost far more than that to develop, it is likely more funds will need to be added in the future, but with parents like Sony and Namco Bandai, and Ken Kutaragi in charge, that shouldn’t be an issue.

The Cell processor is eventually destined to be included in other devices, opening up the possibility of Cellius creating a range of Cell compatible software, although games and ‘new entertainment content’ are the primary aims to date.

Akira Sato from Sony, as well as Shin Unosawa from Namco Bandai will also sit on the board.

Given that Sony has an enormous amount riding on the success of the PS3, industry expectations are that Kutaragi will crack the whip and guide Cellius to produce titles that excel on the PS3, as it battles the Xbox 360 and the Nintendo Wii for market dominance in a race that seems much closer than ever before.

So while we can superciliously say the Cellius name sounds a little “sillius”, their output should be anything but!
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