SOE To Establish Indian Development Studio

Officials from Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) have announced plans to establish a development studio in India for online games. The studio will focus on producing local content and SOE already in discussion with local developers concerning future collaborations. In an interview with the Associated Press SOE vice president of business development and international operations David Christensen indicated that SOE, developers of EverQuest and Star Wars Galaxies, would contribute its own technology to the joint venture. The company’s prospective parnters would provide their own creative talent and share in the costs of setting up the studio – expected to be in the southern city of Bangalore. India is estimated to have around 2.8 million online gamers, out of a population of over 1 billion – more than 50 percent of whom are under the age of twenty-five. The market is expected to rapidly expand over the next few years though as broadband penetration and the country’s economy grows. SOE has already made moves to appeal to the Indian market with a co-production with Virgin Comics to create a PC massively multiplayer online game based on the existing comic book universe of Ramayan 3392 A.D.