Sony Computer Entertainment Asia (SCEA) signed a memorandum of understanding with six local gaming developers yesterday to produce a wide array of digital content for its PlayStation 3 (PS3) and PlayStation Portable (PSP) products.
Under the agreement and through its Taiwanese subsidiary, the Japanese videogame powerhouse will for the first time open up its proprietary PlayStation platform to domestic digital content creators, including XPEC Entertainment Inc (樂陞科技), Intersev International Inc (昱泉國際), Yeck Entertainment Co (耶克娛樂) and SOGA Interactive Co (果子獸) as well as telephone operators Tatung InfoComm Co (大同電信) and Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信), SCEA president Tetsuhiko Yasuda told a press conference in Taipei yesterday.
More importantly, the collaboration with domestic software designers will allow Sony Computer Entertainment to broaden its vision beyond the manufacturing and distribution of hardware and software for its PlayStation products and to focus on creating wider networking plans by next spring, Yasuda said.
PHOTO: CNA
“A complete home entertainment vision will eventually allow all Sony products such as high-definition TVs, handsets, navigation systems and other devices to ‘talk’ to each other and deliver all forms of digital content,” Yasuda said.
This move and Sony’s grand vision of a PlayStation network had been expected, as the gaming entertainment giant suffered losses of nearly US$600 million last year, despite worldwide sales of 10 million PS3 systems.
This was largely the result of the PS3’s high retail price for hardware, which led consumers to switch to Nintendo Co’s Wii console in droves, with major game makers quickly following suit, reducing PS3’s gaming library titles, a recent NPD group research report showed.
PS3 was also affected by Apple Computer Inc’s popular iPhone and iPod Touch roll-outs, which immediately took up 10 percent of the global video gaming market share, as big-game developers like Sega Corp and Electronic Arts Inc jumped on the bandwagon to build popular casual games for the coveted devices.
Despite the raging gaming war amongst Microsoft Corp, Nintendo and SCEA, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Hwang Jung-chiou (黃重球) told yesterday’s signing ceremony that “the establishment of this cross-national research and development channel is the result of the ministry’s hard work to transform Taiwan into a world class digital content software provider country, not just a hardware manufacturing hub.”
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
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