Square Enix Partners With Matsushita For Digital Tech

Major Japanese electronics manufacturer Matsushita has announced that it is partnering with video game publisher and developer Square Enix to integrate the company's 'Application on Demand Engine', originally evolved from the U.S.-based Square-owned firm UIEvolution, into Matsushita's range of electronics. According to an Associated Press report, the companies plan to jointly develop the tech, which will integrate into Matushita's UniPhier concept in products such as digital TVs, DVD recorders, portable music players and mobile phones, allowing better connectivity, and a common method to distribute data of various kinds, likely including interactive games. Thus, the operating system, which is planned to be implemented into hardware by the end of 2007, may act something like those seen in some satellite TV set-top boxes, allowing fee-based transmission of items, but likely not just limited to games - the technology is more low-level than simply a game service, but shows the importance of digital distribution, even for the Japanese market. Square's Yoichi Wada commented to the AP of this new development: "We believe this collaboration will enable our two companies to provide new and highly accessible forms of entertainment to our customers."