Sony Music ventures into gaming business

Sony Music India has ventured into the gaming business through Sony Digital

Home Entertainment (SDHE) with the introduction of the games –’War of the

Rings’ and ‘Hobbit’. These games are based on the Tolkein ‘Lord of the

Rings’ book series.

The company has already signed up New York-based Vivendi Universal Games (VUG),

one of the largest publishers of PC-based games in Asia and is currently in the

process of signing up another gaming major–Electronic Arts (EA).

"Gaming is the future and we are seeing an upward trend in this

business," said Indranil Cha-kraborty, Associate Director (Sales), Sony

Music. "Though the growth is not very dramatic, we think this is the right

time to make an entry in this business. The only thing that needs to be done is

bring down prices, which we will," he added.

According to Chakraborty, the decision to enter gaming business was taken

after doing an extensive study of the gaming market. "We believe that only

we can do this business better because, there is a lot of similarity between

distributing music titles and gaming titles," he said. According to him, it

is easier for somebody in the music business to sell games, than the other way

round. Usually, the shelf life of both - music and games, is very short.

"But selling games is a lucrative business, because old game titles can

sell for a lesser price, but old music will never sell even at a low

price," he explained.

The company has got its channel strategy ready and will soon appoint partners

in 17 towns across the country. "One distributor will be appointed in each

town, except for Mumbai and Delhi, which will have two distributors,"

informed Chakraborty. The company will not appoint any of its existing music

title distis to distribute games. The reason, according to Chakraborty is that

they are not capable enough at this point of time to sell games.

Apart from the channel activity, the company will also sell game titles

through its regular direct channel, which includes 50 stores like PlanetM,

Crossroads and Music World. "This will eventua-lly become 75 stores because

these companies are expanding their reach as well," Chakraborty added.

Nelson Johny


Mumbai


(CyberMedia News Service)