Namco Bandai to use Sony's Cell in arcade games
TOKYO, March 26 (Reuters) - Japanese video game maker Namco Bandai Holdings Inc. said on Monday it is developing arcade games that will run on the Cell microchip of Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 (PS
game console.
Other features of the PS3, such as graphics chips, will also be used by Namco.
It is the first time Sony Computer Entertainment, the game unit of the Tokyo-based electronics and entertainment conglomerate, has reached an agreement for Cell, dubbed "supercomputer on a chip", to be used in a product other than the PS3.
Broadening the scope of electronics products that use the Cell and lowering production costs of the advanced chip is important for Sony, whose group-wide profitability is suffering from massive losses by its game unit.
Because of cutting-edge components such as the Cell and a Blu-ray disc player, Sony makes a loss for each PS3 sold.
Shares in Sony were up 0.6 percent at 6,270 yen in early afternoon, while Namco Bandai gained 1.3 percent to 1,854 yen. The Nikkei average was up 0.29 percent.
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