Sony and Namco Bandai Partner on New Studio

January 24, 2007 | By: James Brightman

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Sony Computer Entertainment and Namco Bandai are joining forces on a new venture to show the world the power of the Cell chip. SCE chairman Ken Kutaragi (right) will head Cellius, which will make games for PS3, PC and mobile phones.

Note: Please see the following correction regarding this story.

Sony and Namco Bandai announced in Japan today that the two have formed a new joint venture called Cellius, which will focus on using Sony's Cell processor to make games for the PlayStation 3, as well as content for mobile phones and PCs, Bloomberg.com has reported.

Under terms of the agreement, Namco Bandai will own a controlling 51 percent share in the new company, with Sony Computer Entertainment naturally owning the other 49 percent. Operations at Cellius are expected to commence on March 6 of this year, although details beyond that are scarce at the moment.

While not explicitly stated in the Bloomberg story, Kotaku is reporting that Ken Kutaragi (a.k.a. "father of the PlayStation") will head the new joint venture. It also would appear that Sony and Namco Bandai have invested a combined $821,000 in Cellius. You may recall that at the end of last November Kutaragi was replaced as president of SCE by Kaz Hirai. Some have also speculated that Kutaragi is slowly being groomed to become the next CEO of Sony Corp. Nevertheless, we'll be curious to see what he brings to this new partnership with Namco Bandai.

According to Bloomberg, the alliance may have been forged in part to help Sony recoup its massive investment (about $1.65 billion) in the Cell processor, which it designed along with IBM and Toshiba. Besides being at the heart of the PS3, the Cell will also be used in other high-end devices, such as television sets.

Although Namco Bandai has been taking more of a platform agnostic approach lately, Namco (before the merger) has always been a very strong supporter of Sony, with many of its best properties (Tekken, Ridge Racer, Soul Calibur etc.) appearing (sometimes exclusively) on Sony platforms. Whether this partnership will mean a greater number of Namco Bandai PS3 exclusives is not yet clear; however, anything created by Cellius would almost certainly not be released for any console but PS3.

We'll bring you more details as soon as they become available.