Sony to focus on regionally targeted development

Sony is to increase its efforts with regional language games in the Indian territory.

In the wake of the success of Hyderabad-based Aurona Technologies’ recent release Hanuman, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, which controls 80 per cent of the gaming market in India, hopes to increase the prominence of titles made specifically for the region, reports Business Standard.

“We introduced the first regional language game ‘Hanuman’ on March 25th, this year," confirmed SCE country manager Atindriya Bose. "Hanuman saw 10,000 units being sold to the trade on day one of its launch. Usually, a good international title would see 3,000 to 4,000 units sale on the first day. This proved the potential of regional games.

“Again, initially we had set a target of selling 30,000 units of the Hanuman game in the first year of its launch, but now we have revised it to 50,000 going by its demand. Any international title would sell close to 15,000 units in one year,” Bose added.

Regional language games are not strictly simply localised translations, but entire experiences specifically created for a country. Forthcoming titles include two quiz games under development by Candela Software, and four projects based on Indian mythology and rural culture by studio Gameshastra, including a kabbadi release.

“In 2008-09, the company grew by 300 per cent and this year too we are expecting similar growth on the back of regional language games," said Bose. "We are looking at Hindi, Tamil, Telegu, Bengali and Punjabi. We already have games in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.”